Directed by: Mike Nichols
Starring: Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, Greg Kinnear, Linda Fiorentino, John Goodman, Judy Greer, Richard Jenkins, Ben Kingsley
What Planet Are You From? is a romantic comedy that never feels right. The romance isn't romantic, the changes of heart aren't moving, and the film isn't very funny. Any laughs occur outside of the plot. With the talent assembled and Mike Nichols directing, much more is expected. Instead, we are given a comedy any B-movie director could have made. Heck, maybe Ed Wood would have given this a shot.
Shandling plays Harold Anderson, who is really an alien sent to Earth by a distant planet populated by men with shrinking genitals. There are no women on the planet, so his mission is to impregnate a woman and bring the baby with him to be studied. I think the mission is to figure out how to reproduce or something. It sounds like the lame plot one would see in a porno. It is an understatement to call this a contrived setup. I picture the screenwriters (one of whom is Shandling) laboring trying to explain this to the studio execs.
Harold's spacecraft intercepts an airplane and beams him aboard along with his boss (Kingsley). Kingsley bails and Harold is suddenly aboard amid the chaos that ensued. This incident is investigated by FAA agent Roland Jones (Goodman), who becomes convinced correctly that Harold is an alien. This news is met with little enthusiasm by his superiors and even less by his wife who is convinced he is having an affair. Couldn't the aliens think of a less conspicuous way to arrive on the planet?
Since Harold has no real feel for women, he repels most of them with his blunt proposals for sex. He becomes a bank vice-president with a fake resume and pals around with the lecherous Perry (Kinnear), who doesn't do much work because he is always gawking at, banging, or talking about women. One woman who likes Harold is recovering alcoholic Susan (Bening). Her alcoholism has nothing to do with the price of tea in China, but I suppose it was thrown in for background. Harold and Susan quickly marry, mostly because she says that is the only way she would have sex, and soon enough she is pregnant. There are emotional and logistical issues that rear their ugly head which are to be expected.
One gag that is repeated endlessly while generating zero laughs is the whirring sound that occurs when Harold becomes aroused. His manufactured private parts sound like an engine whirring out of control during arousal. The women who hear it don't seem very curious about it. If I were a woman, I would be rather alarmed or at least casually suspicious. Yet, we see intimate scenes complete with the whirring sound. This concept is not funny for one second. It is an insurmountable distraction. Here is one idea: Harold's penis could have been constructed way out of proportion in a way that would put Dirk Diggler to shame. It would have been amusing to have Ben Kingsley question the minion who goofed up. ("I'm sorry sir, my calculations were slightly off.") That has to be funnier than the mechanical, noisy genitalia.
Shandling is not an obvious choice for a romantic lead and for good reason. He is not a good one. He looks extremely uncomfortable and flashes his giant white teeth a lot, just like Ross did on the Friends episode where he got this teeth whitened. He does everything but hide from the camera. I do not believe anyone has approached Shandling about playing a romantic lead again since this film. Bening and the rest of the cast dutifully carry on and can make just about any silly thing sound plausible. No one said being an actor is easy.
The late Mike Nichols has made The Graduate, Biloxi Blues, Carnal Knowledge, and Primary Colors, all of which are proof that he was a great director of different types of material. What Planet Are You From? is a woeful film to attach your name to. Fortunately, he made Angels In America for HBO three years later and restored his good name. This is a film likely omitted from his obituary.
No comments:
Post a Comment