Looks like a nice, safe albeit rated R Robin Williams flick, right? That's not all, but what does the back say? "Then, in the wake of an accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of all the fame, fortune and popularity he ever dreamed of, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there." Sounds intriguing, no? A little quirky, but not terrible enough that your mother couldn't watch it with you.This movie has Robin Williams' teenage son die from auto-erotic asphyxiation, which Williams responds to by making his death seem like a suicide, complete with Williams writing a suicide note that ends up becoming a worldwide sensation. The first 30 minutes also involves a lot of various forms of masturbation, and it is indicated that this is the teenage son's only hobby.
Basically, I'm assuming a lot of unassuming people renting this probably won't make it past the first 30 minutes.
It's an interesting concept, for sure. The essence of the idea is that people glamorize others after they're gone (as well as glamorize their own relationship with said person) when in actuality everyone treats each other like s***. So Kyle (the teenage son) is a huge jackass and everyone hates him, but once he dies everyone LOVES HIM! And he's a saint! And Williams, the frustrated father who dreams of one day becoming a published author, decides to fake a suicide note and journal, publicizes it to everyone in the hopes of getting him some sort of long-sought adulation.
It's all a clever idea, see. Too bad the rest of the film isn't clever enough to live up to the premise.
Here are a list of the main things that bothered me:
1) The characters are flat, stupid, and unlikeable. The high school is rum amok with stereotypes, including your closeted jock and goth girl and all that. Everyone treated Kyle with little regard (and with good reason), but once they learn of his "suicide", they all pretend that they were great buddies. Instead of... you know, asking themselves why they treated him like crap, wondering about their role in his "suicide", and then deciding to honor his memory.
Williams' character comes off a little bit better, quite opportunistic but ultimately loving of his deceased son. Of course, there's not really much time in the film spent wondering whether or not he actually regrets using his son's death to his benefit, (which makes the ending kind of abrupt) which means an intriguing dilemma is put to the side for needless "humorous" scenes such as the one where Williams waits for his lady friend to finally choose the right dress to wear (which has untapped potential in terms of comedy, for sure.)
2) The fact that the suicide note is terribly written (from the portion that we see) doesn't help us buy the fact that anyone could become so moved by it. I guess it gives you the idea that the reason Williams hasn't made it as a writer is because he sucks balls, but I'm pretty sure that's not what they were going for. Also, apparently his journal talk a lot about how no one "understands" Kyle and that he's "hiding his intelligence" out of fear of being treated differently. Which is stupid as hell. No one should really buy it.
3) You know those Facebook/Myspace posts your friends used to do where they'd make a soundtrack for their life, and make all their choices hyperliteral so that the song played at their funeral would be something like "Funeral" by Band Of Horses? There's a moment in the movie where Williams grabs his secret stash, and then a song on the soundtrack starts with lyrics something to the effect of "I get high as a kite". It made me want to punch my computer screen. Needless to say, I didn't really like the soundtrack to the film.
I don't want to say that I disliked this, as I did enjoy certain parts to the film and Robin Williams was kind of decent. But it couldn't prevent the feeling of wasted potential.
RATING:
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