2009 | U.S. | 89 minutes
Director: Neal Brennan
Writers: Andy Stock, Rick Stempson
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn
Distributor: Paramount Vantage
Cdn video distributor: Paramount
NOTE: Though the dvd release is not scheduled until December 15th, rental versions of this title are now available.
I have to confess, I mostly sat stone-faced throughout Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Step Brothers. I just don’t find silly, self-centred buffoons funny. So when I noticed The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard was being promoted as “From the Guys Behind Talladega Nights and Step Brothers,” I was rightfully worried. But one thing — an actor — made me happy to check it out.
His name is Jeremy Piven.
I first noticed Piven in the film PCU, and I’ve been anxious to see more ever since. I was amused by his character because, instead of being a boorish moron, he reacted against stupidity and self-interest. In PCU he was surrounded by crazy people — overzealous screamers who fervently lauded the glories of political correctness — and he and his comrades were literally under siege. I loved watching his blank closed-mouth reaction, as he calmly stared them down — pursing his lips a bit, tilting his head slightly from side-to-side — waiting for the right moment to zap them with a comeback. He always had a zinger, but it was the silent suspense just before that always cracked me up.
In the years since Piven mostly popped up in supporting roles, but it still made me smile. He was one of the joys of Chasing Liberty. His cameo in Rush Hour 2 as a gay tailor was one of its highlights (his ad-libbing in the out-takes was even better). Even his tiny appearance in the tense crime thriller Heat made me crack a grin (I was just glad to see him). But he could also be serious. In The Family Man he delivers a terrific little speech to our hero (Nicolas Cage) about “Fidelity Bank and Trust” that exudes so much about his character, and the heart of the movie.
Over the years I also realized he had a knack for speeches. Direct, no-holds-barred stream-of-consciousness stuff that told things as they were. He exuded smartness, honesty, a wicked sense of humour, as well as an overall concern for his fellow man. No matter what the role, you always sense the persona of a man who loved people and wanted to make them happy. I couldn’t imagine a better person I’d want to get drunk with.
All the while I kept wondering, why doesn’t someone give this man a whole movie? It’s finally here, and he deserves better.
Piven plays Don Ready, an old-school used car salesman who still drinks, smokes and hangs out in strip clubs. His specialty is traveling town-to-town, rescuing troubled dealerships. He does it for the thrills and the money, but his latest assignment stirs up his gentler side. It juices him up to score one last win. Perhaps hang up his spurs for good.
There’s way more story to be told, of course. It involves rivalries — in both business and love — as well as boy bands, child molestation, latent homosexuality and Pearl Harbor. Ultimately this is a film that aims to be outrageous. It exaggerates everything. Characters keep saying and doing things that jolt you out of any plausible reality — and out of their characters — simply to showcase whatever gag dreamt up by the writers.
Piven, of course, is forced to throw himself into the mayhem, but his delivery is only as real as the scene he occupies. The more outrageous the situation, the more awkward he looks — and that happens a lot. Take, for example, the smoking-on-a-plane scene near the beginning. It starts off low-key and promising, and Piven is in command. It quickly evolves into him yelling. Piven is now in a cartoon, divorced from any reality. It’s a potentially good scene, ruined by over-acting.
A similar fate befalls Ready’s crew (Ving Rhames, David Koechner and Kathryn Hahn) who otherwise seem to make a great team. They shine best in the quieter scenes, though they do manage to illicit some effective laughs when called upon to be more ridiculous. If only they could have existed in a less noisy film. They would be a blast.
The elements that most deflate the characters is when the script demands they become downright stupid. In the case of Piven’s character, examples are when he sings (terribly) to a lot-full of customers, or gets all fatherly with a young salesman he suspects may be his son. He’s not, of course, but that doesn’t stop Don Ready from making an ass of himself.
Throughout likable characters are sabotaged in favour of jokes like this; jokes that don’t work. But the problem more likely has to do with miscasting.
Will Ferrell has made this type of film quite a few times now (like the ones mentioned earlier) and, somehow, he has the magic touch to turn these awful moments into box office gold. No matter how unpleasant his character is (or, perhaps, because of it) people laugh. One assumes the casting of Piven was a test to see if he could work the same magic. Now we know.
I just hope Piven rises from this failed experiment to score the big hit I know is in him.
- Theatrical release date: August 14, 2009
- Video release date: December 15, 2009 (currently available for rental)
- Production Budget: $10 million
- Worldwide Box Office: $15,142,571
FUN ALTERNATIVE: Used Cars is still the best comedy about the auto sales trade. The plot is strikingly similar to that of The Goods — sleazy sales guy falls for owner’s daughter and resolves to save dealership from ruthless rival — and features some outlandish scenes of physical comedy. Most of the best moments are the various promotional schemes the characters invent — especially the “Marshall Lucky” bit. While definitely wild and absurd at times, the film stays rooted in the story its telling — something I wish the writers of The Goods had attempted themselves.
Director Robert Zemeckis (he went on to direct the blockbuster Back to the Future movies, Forrest Gump, Contact and Cast Away), co-writer/producer Bob Gale, and star Kurt Russell, provide a very entertaining and informative commentary for the dvd. They try to explain why a lot of the humour works and their pearls of wisdom include “comedy is about reactions… we only laugh about the things that are true” and “this movie proves the Hitchcock premise that you’ll love a character if he’s good at his job.” Just listening to these guys — especially Russell’s uncontrollable laugher throughout — is sometimes more fun than the movie.