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Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
That Darn Jew
Now Playing: LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
Maybe you have to be an Albert Brooks fan to appreciate his films. There's no question that Brooks' films--as a writer and director, not necessarily as an actor for hire--are acquired tastes. With the exception of DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, which never played in the town I was living in at the time, I've seen all of Brooks' films theatrically. I believe the arrival of a new Albert Brooks comedy is a special occasion; after all, it occurs only about every five or six years.

So I was excited to learn that his latest, LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD, was playing here in Champaign. Surprisingly, since it's only on about 120 screens right now. I never saw any TV advertising for the movie, and the Champaign theaters do no newspaper ads, so I'm not shocked that I was the only one in the theater for a Wednesday afternoon matinee. While LOOKING FOR COMEDY will probably do the least box office of Brooks' career (not that you'd notice--he never does more than about $15 million gross), it's a clever and funny movie that made me chuckle a lot.

If you're curious about its alleged controversial content, let me assure you that the buzz is ridiculous. Sony refused to release it, due partially to its title, and Warner Independent picked it up. There is nothing in Brooks' movie that could be considered controversial or politically incorrect, unless you believe that portraying people of India as full-fledged, well-rounded human beings is a sensitive act.

Brooks, who wrote the original screenplay and directed, stars as Albert Brooks, who leaves a humiliating interview with director Penny Marshall for the lead in a remake of HARVEY (!) and returns home to find a registered letter from the U.S. government waiting for him. Turns out Fred Dalton Thompson (as himself) is heading a government commission dedicated to learning more about the Muslim people by discovering what makes them laugh, and he wants Albert to take a month in India and Pakistan, find out, and put it all in a 500-page report (it's gotta be 500 pages to justify the expense, but, don't worry, nobody reads the reports anyway, they just weigh them).

Albert is accompanied in New Delhi by two State Department men (Jon Tenney and John Carroll Lynch) and his Indian assistant Maya (the wonderful Sheetal Sheth). After a day of man-on-the-street interviews ("What makes you laugh?") turns out to be fruitless, Brooks has the idea to stage a standup concert in a country that has no standup comedy. The film's major setpiece is Brooks' routine, performed before an auditorium filled with Indians unfamiliar with Brooks or his material. The routine bombs, as it should have. The joke is that Brooks' routine is actually a deconstruction of American standup comedy, riffing on ventriloquist acts and supposed "improvisation". It likely would have bombed in an American comedy club too, which doesn't mean that it isn't wildly funny.

The second half is padded, with help from Michael Giacchino's witty score, with a dose of international intrigue, as Albert's covert late-night meeting with a group of stoned budding Pakistani comics. Bombed on hash, they, of course, laugh their asses off at Albert's routine, and the narcissistic Brooks thinks he killed. There's also a neat bit with Albert being offered the lead in an Al Jazeera sitcom titled THAT DARN JEW.

Filming on location in New Delhi, Brooks uses the local population and scenery to good advantage, including one killer gag--a subtle one, but brilliantly executed--staged at the Taj Mahal. I didn't come away from LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD with a better idea of what makes Muslims laugh (except Polish jokes--they kill everywhere), but I know that it made me laugh.

Posted by Marty at 4:30 PM CST
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