“When Comedians Get Serious”
Another movie list from TotalFilm. Some examples:
Ben Stiller
Greenberg (2010)
Why So Serious? Ben Stiller returns to multiplexes this Friday in Greenberg. The funnyman is under the watchful eye of Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding), so it’s no surprise that this one isn’t a broad comedy.
Expect a quieter, slow-burn character piece, with Stiller as Roger Greenberg, a neurotic forty-something who decides to spent some time “trying to do nothing for a while”. The only thing looking likely to free him from his stagnant life is the relationship slowly developing with his brother’s assistant (Greta Gerwig).
Stiller said of the character: “I really felt an empathy for the guy and I’ve actually never had that experience before on a movie, where I ended up feeling connected to a character as a real person”.
If they played it for laughs… Greenberg would have a permanent pout, talk in a funny voice, sport a dodgy wig and go around complaining that “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously depressed”.
Jim Carrey
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Why So Serious? Jim Carrey probably takes the crown for being the most dichotomous of all the comedy legends who take on serious roles, balancing out the darker stuff with rubber-faced, high-concept laughs.
Perhaps this jester’s finest dramatic moment came playing Joel Barish in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine, which combined indie cool, brain-frying smarts and some genuinely poignant touches in one genre-defying package. Carrey’s never been more convincing, and the screenplay is one of Charlie Kaufman’s finest.
If they played it for laughs… Jim Carrey has to mug for all he’s worth in order to win back his memory-discarding ex, Clementine, as he tries to jog her brain by re-enacting their entire relationship. The movie culminates in a last-minute snowmobile chase through her memory bank.
See also: The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, The Majestic, The Number 23
Robin Williams
One Hour Photo (2002)
Why So Serious? The first film to truly mine the underlying shuddersome creepiness that Robin Williams could tap into (well, maybe the second following Mrs Doubtfire).
Undergoing a convincing physical transformation (man-beast Williams apparently had to de-fuzz a lot of his notoriously hairy bod for the role), Williams is all dead-eyed stared, albino blond hair, and Generic-Mart garb.
His Sy Parrish becomes slowly obsessed with the Yorkin family, whose photographs he develops. He’s tipped over the edge when he is sacked from his job (prohibiting the theft of any more family snaps) and he discovers that the idyllic family life he has been fantasising over could well be disrupted by the father’s infidelity.
It was Williams’ performance that gave this movie its unique selling point, and deservedly so.
If they played it for laughs… How could the Yorkins not fall for perennial family favourite Williams? After charming his photo customers with his repertoire of funny voices, he seals the deal by continually slipping in prints of himself in humorous poses into their albums until they relent and adopt him.
See also: Good Will Hunting, Insomnia
I know actors like to stretch in terms of the roles they play, but honestly if comedies were given more props by serious-minded outfits like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, perhaps comic actors wouldn’t feel such a need to go dramatic.
While drama-comedies have won the Best Picture Oscar in the last 10 years or so, including American Beauty in 2000 and Shakespeare in Love in 1999, you have to go back all the way to 1978 with Annie Hall for an out-and-out comedy to take the top honor.
For more of TotalFilm’s list of “When Comedians Get Serious,” go here.