Confession time. I really wanted to love this movie. I mean, I really, really, really did. Sadly, not everything we want in life comes true. On the other hand, I’m an optimist and try to remain open to compromise. So, while I did not hate the film by any means, I came away only kind of liking ARE YOU HERE.
Matthew Weiner makes his feature film debut as a writer and director with ARE YOU HERE. For those of you in the know, that alone is quite an exciting idea. For those of you who watch too much reality TV and not enough of the good stuff, Matthew Weiner is known for writing substantially on the AMC series Mad Men and the HBO series The Sopranos. Now that I have your attention, I’m afraid things about about to get real, as in real disappointing.
ARE YOU HERE had a lot of promise. The story itself, understandably so from such a renowned storyteller, actually had potential. Strip away the flaws and its a wonderfully touching, poignant and down-to-earth story. A tad preachy, but not in an overbearing, pretentious way. Owen Wilson plays Steve Dallas, a mediocre local weatherman basing his career on his good looks, limited only “by that nose.” Dallas high high hopes and ambition, actively pursuing his dream of becoming a big shot celebrity newsman on a major network. The problem is, he gets bogged down with the personal and family crises of Ben Baker, his long-time best friend, played by Zach Galifiankis.
Ben is a complicated man, with the imagination of a child and the maturity of a teenager. Ben clearly struggles with a mental disability left to speculation until later in the film. This is exasperated when he learns his modestly wealthy father has passed away and the remaining family convenes for the reading his his father’s will. Ben’s uptight, straight-laced sister Terri, played by Amy Poehler of TV’s Parks and Recreation,assumes she and her husband are in line to inherit her father’s farmhouse, land and country store, but when things don’t go her way, she is determines to do whatever she must to right these wrongs.
ARE YOU HERE is an intimately personal family dramedy, and that comes through in the writing. Where it loses some of its luster is with the cast. Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis are, for the most part, one trick ponies. As funny as they both can be, they rely almost entirely on their own individual schtick in this film, as they have done with some many films. I feel Galifianakis does make an attempt — albeit small and ineffective — to expand his range a bit, but their performances ultimately hold back the underlying potential of Weiner’s script. As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but consider Wilson’s and Galifiankis’ roles being played instead by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their younger years.
The upside of the cast is two-fold. I found Amy Poehler’s performance to be well-played, and while still carrying a touch of her trademark wit, relatively outside of her normal wheelhouse, showing an increase in range for the comedienne known primarily for television work. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Laura Ramsey as the recently deceased patriarch’s much younger, very attractive and mysteriously insightful widow. Terri, of course, despises her, Ben finds a renewed closeness to her as his stepmother and Dallas, naturally, finds himself drawn to filling the void left by Ben’s dead father.
Tension ensues. Family drama takes over. All the normal expectations are fulfilled in a film of this genre, but nothing clicks on the level I had hoped. Part of me wanted for Wilson and Galifianakis to exhibit some cosmically-aligned reincarnation of Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis, but it never really fully took shape. There was a glimmer, but it quickly faded. Wilson and Poehler did show some chemistry in their disgust for each other, but it plays as a side note to the central story which is Ben’s struggle and ultimately his epiphany to take control of his own life and make compromises for the benefit of his friends and family and not just himself. With a different cast, and a more thoughtful approach to this central story. ARE YOU HERE could have been a significantly more appealing and powerful film, but instead we are left with what feels more like another factory-made dramedy more interested in marquis celebrity draw than compelling storytelling.
As a footnote, which is about the equivalent of screen time she gets, Jenna Fischer is gravely underused and rarely seen in this film’s supporting cast.
ARE YOU HERE opens in theaters on Friday, August 22, 2014.
Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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