The burden of a superstar

Italian-born director Gabriele Muccino and American superstar Will Smith collaborated very successfully on the true-life Horatio Alger story The Pursuit of Happiness in 2006. But although their talents are still evident this time, the screenplay (clearly the work of a lesser talent than Happiness screenwriter Steven Conrad) seems a much poorer choice. It's not clear what the title means. I won't be surprised if I've altogether forgotten it a few years from now. What is evident is that, despite its gloss, this is a manipulative, saccharine movie--in marked contrast to the straightforward, authentic Happyness.

I wound up less curious where the cagey narrative was headed than what this project says about director Muccino and star Smith. Why this misstep? Some argue that it means super-stardom is going to Will Smith's head--that he's suffering from delusions of grandeur. After all, his previous two roles were as the last man on earth and a superhero, and this time he's a saintly sufferer who seeks redemption through successively more generous deeds. As for Muccino, he made his name in Italy with movies that evoked his own generation and culture, and it could be he's just adrift in Hollywood, like many before him. Obviously he's got talent. But this is above all just one more illustration of the importance of finding good material and good writing.

A 911-call opening in which protagonist Ben Thomas (Will Smith) announces his own suicide piques our curiosity. But successive contacts between Ben and a blind frozen steak seller (Woody Harrelson), a life-long friend (Barry Pepper), a battered Latina mother (Elpidia Carrillo), an unscrupulous nursing home manager and several other patients, not to mention a brother (Michael Ealy), arouse little emotional response because we haven't been filled in on the context. Another flashback indicates Ben was once an aerospace engineer with a beautiful wife and a fast sports car. So what? Nothing fits toghether. Finally Ben's directed to Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), a beautiful, soulful young woman who, alas, has a failing heart and a large debt to the IRS. Catnnip to our hero, who after stalking her at the cardiac ward of the hospital, promises her six months' grace on the $53,000 she owes the government, and leaves her his phone number in case she wants to get in touch. You bet she does, at first just to talk. She's needy and nice and has Duke, a handsome black and white Great Dane (they have heart problems too, get it?). He cannot resist. She is not just perfect for Ben's philanthropic needs--she's also adorable. He can't help getting close to her, though he keeps his secrets to himself with her as with everybody else, especially the audience.

The movie just barely maintains watchability by at this point settling into a love story. Dawson remains irresistible, even for the opaque Ben. Till her heart made her too weak to work, she had a custom letterpress business. With his compulsive do-goodishness, he sneaks back one night and fixes her biggest and best antique press for her. Soon they are sharing a series of Kodak moments, dining by candlelight, picnicking in a Hallmark card field, making love, and lured into long kisses. Then she faints while walking Duke. Back at the hospital, her cardiologist finds her heart is so weak she has only days or weeks to live and puts her on the priority list for a transplant.

And then it's time for the plot to kick in again.

It does seem that only hubris could have led Will Smith into a role so noble and mysterious that despite requiring a range of emotion, it never resolves itself into a three-dimensional personality. Ben Thomas is only a more charismatic version of the character of Michael Anthony played by Marvin Miller in the Fifties TV series "The Millionaire," who was the factotum of a wealthy man who went around finding worthy people to give large sums of money to. This time the finale is disturbing when you think about it as well as preposterous. And since except for the sweetness of the brief love idyll of Will and Rosario nothing really makes sense or has emotional import till the end, the audience is asked to indulge by simply sitting around waiting for the climax to happen and the whole explanation to come. First-time screenwriter Grant Nieporte is successful at making the earlier scenes mysterious but lacks the ingenuity to make them involving. Hard core Will Smith fans will have to see this, but even them it may disappoint.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.