Little Nicky
***
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Entertainment on November 17, 2000; certificate 12;
90 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Steven Brill; produced by Jack
Giarraputo, Robert Simonds. Written by Steven Brill, Tim
Herlihy, Adam Sandler. Photographed by Theo van de Sande;
edited by Jeff Gourson.
CAST.....
Adam Sandler..... Nicky
Patricia Arquette..... Valerie
Harvey Keitel..... Satan
Rhys Ifans..... Adrian
Tom 'Tiny' Lister Jr..... Cassius
Rodney Dangerfield..... Lucifer
Allen Covert..... Todd
Peter Dante..... Peter
Jonathan Loughman..... John
I came out of "Little
Nicky" thinking it's as close to "Deconstructing Harry" as an Adam
Sandler movie could get. No, it's not full of analytic wit, but it does have
scenes in hell, and Woody Allen would have made a better lead. This could
have been a great film, if only the main performance was not such a dead
zone.
Why does Sandler insist on scrunching up his face,
making affected movements and speaking in voices that have the same effect
as fingernails on a blackboard? Doesn't he realise that it isn't funny? That
"The Waterboy" is one of the most annoying movies ever made, simply by virtue
of his grating attacks on viewers' senses? That he was at his best in "Big
Daddy" and "The Wedding Singer", in which he played characters whose aesthetic
characteristics were more or less normal?
In "Little Nicky" he crouches sideways, shuffling
to move around, making a nervous twitch with his eyes, with his mouth stretched
as far to his ear as it could possibly go, as he whispers, shrieks and giggles
in the voice of a chimpanzee with emphysema. The screenplay gives details
to explain his afflictions but there's really no need for them; his character
is supposed to be a clueless underdog, but subtlety goes a long way -- this
portrayal is over the top, irritating, and simply not funny.
And yet you will notice that I have given the
film three stars out of four, because almost everything that surrounds Sandler
here is masterful anarchic comedy. The story: Satan (Harvey Keitel) is losing
his powers, because two of his sons, the malevolent Adrian (Rhys Ifans) and
Cassius (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr), have escaped the gates of Hell to visit
Earth, freezing up the portal and preventing lost souls from getting in.
The only possible remedy is for the third son, an ineffectual young loser
named Nicky (Sandler), to go after them, capture them, and bring them back.
No other servant may be sent because only those with Satanic blood have the
power to cross over when the gates are not open.
Enough about the plot. How are the jokes? Well,
we open with a great sketch about a typical Hell entrant, as a peeping Tom
(Jon Lovitz) falls to his death while spying on an attractive young mother,
then plummets right down into the inferno. The odd little fool wanders around
gobsmacked -- a perfect introduction to director Steven Brill's vision of
the place, which involves "Hitler's daily appointment to get a pineapple
shoved up his ass," and punishments for incompetent service which involve
having breasts implanted into your head. Don't get me wrong -- the production
design offers the traditional dark mountains, chained slaves and pits of
lava -- but darn it if the filmmakers haven't put a spin on them with hilarious
little eccentricities like these.
In Hell, Harvey Keitel has fun with his role,
giving a perfectly devilish devil performance. He cackles with glee in an
early announcement, keeping his sons on edge as he decides "The ruler for
the next ten thousand years will be… me!" On Earth, we get such items
as a possessed talking dog who talks dirty and hangs around in strip clubs,
and an insane cameo by Quentin Tarantino as a blind bible basher who smells
the scent of evil on Nicky and runs around screaming whenever the boy approaches.
There is more. Much more. In a lot of comedies I would criticise it for being
too much, too silly, too messy -- but this is supernatural slapstick, so
very few rules apply, and it works.
I have to recommend this movie. It made me laugh
out loud a great deal. But during every scene containing Sandler I was bugged
by the fact that his performance was so abnormal, so aggravatingly forced
and grotesque, and far too weak and irrelevant to carry the movie. The guy
can act. Why doesn't he?
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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