The best and worst thing about “Mr. Right” is its own conception as a story.
Anna Kendrick plays eccentric millennial Martha who winds up in a sudden romance with her titular Mr. Right (Sam Rockwell) after suffering a recent very bad break-up.
Their newfound relationship is fast moving but
showing strong promise until his career as a “moral hitman” comes to life,
spending his life and making money by murdering the people that hire him to
fulfill contracts for daring to take another person’s life. Their relationship
gets a little bit more complicated from there.
“Mr. Right” is the sort of film that lives and
thrives on writing potential and charisma. The film is a character driven dark
comedy that gets by on what sort of insanity its characters can generate by
bouncing off of one another more than whatever plot they can run through.
Fortunately, the movie manages to stay afloat thanks in no small part to just
how far its major players carry it.
As expected, Rockwell treads the line between a
quirky sociopath pursuing his best interest and a man that may have found some
sort of enlightenment in his own mental instability. He’s bolstered by his
chemistry with Kendrick, who plays off of her own typecasting in such a way
that you don’t truly realize exactly how her character is off until about the
halfway point of the movie despite all of the signs being hidden in plain
sight.
All of the other cast members that come up manage to hold their own just fine while actually getting the opportunity to give real performances despite being in roles that could have been simply throwaway otherwise.
The throwaway nature of these characters would appear to be something that even the script was aware of as the film numerous potshots at the typical man on a mission formula that provide some of the best laughs of the entire movie, with special praise being offered to the set up for Mr. Right’s climactic “rampage” and a side character subplot that wraps up in ways that make you question why nobody has attempted to lampoon the sort of routine climax that this film satirizes before.
The third act of the film is easily the surprise take away of “Mr. Right” that would be worth a viewing alone even if the rest of the movie wasn’t so great. While far from bad however, it is still more than a little bit problematic.
Reiterating that “Mr. Right” is a film in love with its lively characters more than actual plot structure, this isn’t so problematic when the actions of the characters are able to immediately drive everything the entire production forward. It is problematic when their quirky nature can make them difficult to truly define.
While the nature of Martha’s oddities somewhat come to light near halfway mark, she comes off as oddly shifting to the whims of the narrative and production, with Rockwell coming off as a male version of a one note manic pixie dream girl. Meanwhile, all of the scenes focused on the other characters of the cast feel extraneous to what feels like an odd yet derivative romantic comedy between the two leads that just leads to the whole production feeling rather plodding and unfocused until things kick into gear a little late.
Whether you’re willing to sit through problems of “Mr. Right” for what it does stupendously at its endgame will determine how much you get out of it. For me personally, the easy hour and a half sit through was well worth it even at its worst.
All of the other cast members that come up manage to hold their own just fine while actually getting the opportunity to give real performances despite being in roles that could have been simply throwaway otherwise.
The throwaway nature of these characters would appear to be something that even the script was aware of as the film numerous potshots at the typical man on a mission formula that provide some of the best laughs of the entire movie, with special praise being offered to the set up for Mr. Right’s climactic “rampage” and a side character subplot that wraps up in ways that make you question why nobody has attempted to lampoon the sort of routine climax that this film satirizes before.
The third act of the film is easily the surprise take away of “Mr. Right” that would be worth a viewing alone even if the rest of the movie wasn’t so great. While far from bad however, it is still more than a little bit problematic.
Reiterating that “Mr. Right” is a film in love with its lively characters more than actual plot structure, this isn’t so problematic when the actions of the characters are able to immediately drive everything the entire production forward. It is problematic when their quirky nature can make them difficult to truly define.
While the nature of Martha’s oddities somewhat come to light near halfway mark, she comes off as oddly shifting to the whims of the narrative and production, with Rockwell coming off as a male version of a one note manic pixie dream girl. Meanwhile, all of the scenes focused on the other characters of the cast feel extraneous to what feels like an odd yet derivative romantic comedy between the two leads that just leads to the whole production feeling rather plodding and unfocused until things kick into gear a little late.
Whether you’re willing to sit through problems of “Mr. Right” for what it does stupendously at its endgame will determine how much you get out of it. For me personally, the easy hour and a half sit through was well worth it even at its worst.
3 Shatners out of 4
Bottom Line: "Mr. Right" may have been better suited to television or stage but its a decently fun ride nevertheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment