Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
My Blog
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I know it’s odd to call Jake Kasdan’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story an intelligent stupid comedy, but that’s what it is. A stupid stupid comedy would be something along the lines of…The 40 Year Old Virgin, Elf, the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Those are fraught with long drawn out joke set-ups, adolescent humor, inane punch-lines that have only the shallowest of wit. But Walk Hard succeeds where those fail. The writing is risible and it has a bit of a subtle genius at its base.
It’s the story of Dewy Cox, a poor country boy played by John C. Reilly, who soars from penurious farm family overalls to guitar straps over white sport coats in musical stardom–and of course, with the cliché tortured artist problems along the way.
He goes from an Elvis Aaron Presley hillbilly existence, with the companion brother that didn’t die at birth, the weathered shack-like home in the sticks, the fawning, plump black haired mother, to high school talent show, to one-room recording studio, and on, and on, etcetera, etcetera. We move with Dewey through his life, hitting almost every known rock star legend’s melodramatic highs and lows we’ve come to know over the music industry’s historical Rock’n’rollercoaster ride. Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, and others, are shamelessly tapped into to parody the lives of the greats of modern American music. It’s like you took all of the above and more, and blended them into a puree paste of one thick icing coat character. It may have been done before, but it’s rarely done as well.
Now let me say for the record, I’m not one to indulge in dumb, over-the-top comedies. Don’t get me wrong, I like comedies–if they are genuinely funny. Most are not. The majority of them, in my opinion, are sophomoronic, teenager targeted slop where the look on the guy’s face when he takes a shot to the groin is suppose to elicit uproarious laughter. (There is a groin shot, but Kasdan actually makes it funny). Bits like this are what makes most comedies nothing more than a way to embarrass the chicks, and make the guys ‘look cool’ with false laugher.
Walk Hard doesn’t do this.
The pacing is good, the writing is very, very good without being solicitous, the acting is balanced and quite superior, especially Reilly, and the directing is wonderful with excellent timing. (Not surprising since he’s the son of Lawrence Kasdan, writer and director of The Big Chill, Silverado, and Body Heat).
So if you have a nostalgic taste for Rock-a-billy, Rock-n-roll, Classis Rock, even the oft emetic Disco, and a fan of good, well-done comedies–and you’re over fourteen, you should check out Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. It’s well worth it. (Don’t go looking for the soundtrack to buy; the music is there just to facilitate the comedy).
Be prepared though, it is rated ‘R.’ There is blue language and some rather raunchy scenes, one in particular that’s absolutely hilarious (But it may be just a guy thing).
So if you’re ready to laugh hard, watch Walk Hard.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist).
Keck
