Sunday Review: Movie 43

Do the ends justify it?

By Morris Dean

Its focus on scatological humor will prevent some viewers from watching some (or much, or maybe all) of Movie 43 (2013, numerous directors, most of whom seem to appear in the story they wrote). But it is FU-U-U-NNY!
    Are you not sure about "scatological"? Well, consider the related theological term: Eschatology is the study of last things—or "End Times." It's the study of ends, you might say. (At any rate, I like to say it). The word scatology is about the same thing—it's just that the ends are "hind ends" and "bottom ends" and "front ends"—body appendages and orifices considered private in polite society and kept appropriately clothed and quiet.
    Right, there's nothing polite about this movie. But, in defense of comedy, when was polite ever exploited for a laugh?
    Well, okay—P.G. Wodehouse, perhaps.

The movie's possibly funniest segment (it gets my vote and my wife's) illustrates the arguably most striking human appendage of all. Hugh Jackman's make-up (or costume?) includes a scrotum hanging from his neck, which to everyone in the restaurant but Jackman's character's blind date (played by Kate Winslet) seems to be the most natural thing ever. She, however, finds it impossible not to look at. She sure doesn't want to touch it, though, and when one of its hairs falls into his soup (and he slurps it up obliviously) Winslet's imitation of the gag reflex is masterful.

The justification for the movie's segmental structure is given in the setup: An inventive script writer played by Dennis Quaid has bluffed his way into a studio office to pitch his idea for a movie, which seems to be to string together a series of Saturday Night Live-type of sketches....I wasn't able to discover how many members of the cast might have worked on SNL, if any in fact, so it's just a theory.
    Other segments include:
    Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts are homeschooling their son but making sure he doesn't miss out on the usual hazing and bullying and other disappointments and indignities that school students are subject to....
    Richard Gere plays an account executive whose company is about to launch a life-size iBod, whose initial offering looks like a nude female with all appendages and orifices in their ideal locations. Unfortunately, the very best location for the communication device's fan is in her you-know-what, and more than one of the account team's male staff members are missing digits. And a young man who participated in focus-group user tests has lost his you-know-what. How's the company going to reduce its potential liability?....
    Cleverly positioned at the end, after the credits and a short sample of bloopers, there's even a "cartoon" in which Elizabeth Banks, who wrote the piece, is newly married to a man who is in an amorous relationship with his cartoon cat....
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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