Fine Buck Howard a Good Trick
Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), much to his father’s chagrin, wants to be a writer, and as such he’s decided to forgo law school and head to Hollywood to see what’s possible. Facing a bit more hardship than he anticipated, he ends up taking the job of being one-time sensation (and “Tonight Show” regular) Buck Howard’s (John Malkovich) road manager.
Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, John Malkovich and Steve Zahn in Magnolia Pictures' The Great Buck Howard
The mentalist isn’t exactly at the top of his game, but he does have a shtick and a popularity with crowds of a particular age and persuasion impossible to ignore. He’s confident in his own celebrity, sure that a major comeback putting him back in the middle of the public eye is absolutely imminent. In fact, he’s got a new trick sure to knock everyone’s socks off, both Troy and fiery publicist Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt) right at the center of all of Buck’s desires.
I have trouble understanding why The Great Buck Howard is just hitting screens now. It debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to a lot of applause. I myself saw it at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival, the comedic melodrama proving to be one of the more euphoric highlights. And yet, here it is coming to theaters only now, Magnolia Pictures barely giving it a cursory release before shuffling the picture off to DVD in just a few weeks.
Pity, because while the film isn’t going to change lives or anything, it is very much a minor winner of the first degree. Even more than that, it has moments of superlative brilliance impossible to resist, writer and director Sean McGinly crafting a wonderful narrative debut that’s highly entertaining. It ends up being one of those movies you almost can’t help but adore, everything about it manufacturing a giddy euphoria I just reveled in.
It does have its lesser moments, and the dramatic momentum kind of stalls out a bit during the midsection. I also didn’t completely buy into Troy and Valerie’s relationship, and as good as the two of them are the chemistry between the pair is really rather negligible. Finally, there are times the editing just feels a bit off, some of the scenes having a visual choppiness that’s slightly disconcerting.
Malkovich goes a long way to erase any misgivings I may have, however. He’s totally in his elements as Buck, inhabiting the man so effortlessly its hard to tell where the actor ends and the character begins. This is another of his patented quirky originals, and like Osbourne Cox or Teddy KGB he’s a comedic dynamo you just can’t take your eyes off of.
For me, though, what ultimately puts the film over the top is a quiet moment between father and son that makes all that’s come before ring with a heartfelt truth I hadn’t anticipated. Whether the reason this is so is because the two actors in the scene are actual real life kid and dad Colin and Tom I cannot say, nevertheless it is a superb moment that really hit me where it counts. In a few short masterstrokes everything McGinly wanted to say is magnificently delivered, the smile on my face while it was happening so broad I’m lucky it didn’t end up being permanent.
Would I call The Great Buck Howard itself great? No, not really, but it is awfully good. Better, thanks to some fine work from Malkovich and some killer individual scenes every now and then it is even more than that, and if any film deserved more than a throwaway release in a handful of theaters this is certainly it. Catch it now before it disappears again, sadly this time maybe forever.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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