Todd’s Movie Blog

Saw Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story over the weekend and laughed my….lower rear part of my anatomy off.  This is one of the funnest films I’ve seen all year.  It is a bittersweet, yet ultimately uplifting mock biopic of Dewey Cox, a ficticious pioneer of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  Patterned mostly after the Johhny Cash film Walk the Line, it also veers into taking a few swipes at Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and Roy Orbison.  The story follows Dewey, who after a tragic machete accident that killed his brother, tries to gain his father’s approval by becoming the greatest musician of all time.  Along the way he has several marriages, goes in and out of rehab and eventually is honored by the music community in his golden years, meanwhile his father is continually poping up at every victory to remind him that “The wrong kid died.”  The basic plot follows every major biopic made in the last ten years, poking gentle fun at al the cliches that the genre has created for itself with slapstick, double entendres, and the Airplane! style literal joke.  And through it all John C. Reilly does an amazing thing.  In this two dimensional comedy he makes Dewey a three dimensional character.  For all of his faults with drugs, women, and a certain obliviousness about how he hurts people (when his second wife finds out he’s still married to the first wife he says, “I forgot”) he actually makes you care about the man.   No wonder he got nominated for a Golden Globe.   My favorite bits are  the little jokes.  I love the way every famous character has to be referred to by their full name so you know who they are, “You’re right Paul McCartney of The Beatles”.  I also like how adult actors are playing teenagers and say their age constantly to remind you how old they are and then to show the passing of time they simply wear a wig and refer to their new age, “Yes, it’s me, your second wife Darlene at fifty.”  Oddly enough for a comedy about a musician, with the exception of the sixties protest songs, the music isn’t comedy material.  Let’s Duet gets a few laughs for it’s clever double entendres, but can also be enjoyed as a straight ballad.  Hold My Hand,  Guilty As Charged, Beautiful Ride, and the title track  are all perfectly crafted  songs that could have been made in their respective eras (though his jumpsuited disco performance of Walk Hard does make you giggle).  And for fans of Chicago, it comes as no surprise that Reilly has got a decent set of pipes on him as he sings all of the songs himself, patterning his voice after which ever singer he is spoofing at the time.  I would now like to comment about something that all the critics seem to be geeting bothered by in the film.  There is a scene in the movie where Dewey has been partying and there are naked women everywhere.  He is sitting on the floor talking on the phone to his wife.  Suddenly a band mate enters the shot to ask him a question and there on the screen is …um…his junk.  Sure, a cheap laugh, but critics have been focusing on it like it is some kind of major scandal.  Lighten up!  If women can be seen with all of their jiggly bits exposed, it seems only fair that a guy should be shown flopping in the breeze as well.