Friday, March 16, 2007

He Was a Quiet Man

Especially when the parts are as visible as they are here. If originality is the art of concealing your sources, then He is a Quiet Man suffers from not hiding them well enough: beginning with a narration that seems straight out of Taxi Driver, the film becomes a Milton-centric Office Space, then shifts gears to Garden State crossbred with Boxing Helena, then Boxing Helena with Fight Club, and finally (and cheesily) back to Taxi Driver. Even the characters inherited from those other films remain largely unchanged: Christian Slater must channel Stephen Root’s “Milton” — down to the mumble, red hair, glasses, and rosacea — and Elisha Cuthbert, with her dark hair and arched brows, seems to have been cast for her vague resemblance to Sherilyn Fenn.

Credit where it’s due, I say.

But though the overall structure of the film may have been borrowed, the rest of it is its own — and often hilarious: the absurd rivalry between co-workers with planned shooting rampages of their own, Sascha Knopf’s ill-fated booty call, the Hannibal Lecter-like “come closer” scenes with the paralyzed Cuthbert and terrified Slater, and the sincere but deadpan manner in which Cuthbert offers to pleasure Slater by dropping her mouth open like a sex doll (having earlier boasted of her matchless oral abilities) leap to mind.

And there’s some good performances, too. Veteran Slater does an admirable job as as “Bob”, and long-underrated but rising indie actress Knopf brings a warm charisma and knowing sense of humor to her “malicious bitch with great tits” role.

Which I suppose makes my issue with the film’s borrowed storyline somewhat moot. Maybe completely moot. Overall (but superficially), He Was a Quiet Man might be dismissed as Boxing Elisha, but given that I was laughing throughout the film along with everyone else in the audience, then the parts of it — from the dark humor to Knopf’s impressive rack (itself turned into a bit in the film) — more than equal the sum.

Credit where it’s due, I say.