Observe and Report

Copyright 2009, Warner Bros. Pictures

A movie like Observe and Report is a good way for a comic actor to get all the bile out of his or her system every few years, I guess. Observe and Report belongs to the same group as Punch-Drunk Love, The Cable Guy, or The Razor's Edge, movies where funny men don't really act as cheerfully funny as you'd expect or want them to. Though it has plenty of funny moments, I'd be hard-pressed to call Observe and Report a straight-up comedy. Shock value aside, most of the violence in this film along with the sheer insanity of the lead character dampens any potential comic value.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy Observe and Report, a far darker film than the previews hint at. No, I liked it very much--I do hesitate to use the word "like," for obvious reasons, but you get my drift. Starring Seth Rogen as a mentally unstable head of mall security in the local suburbs, Observe and Report is a movie about why some people really shouldn't touch any kind of firearms. OK, it's not really about that, but when you see Ronnie Barnhart (Rogen) picking up a pistol at various points during the story, you cringe. Cringing is what you'll do, much more than you will laugh. Writer-director Jody Hill (he of The Foot Fist Way and Eastbound and Down) loves the cringe-worthy humor in life more than the relatable or wacky humor. Crazy things happen in Observe and Report, but all comes with a guarantee that laughter shouldn't be the most immediate reaction. Is it really funny when Ronnie finally gets his way with Brandi (Anna Faris), the slutty makeup clerk in the mall by date-raping her? Is it really funny when he takes out his aggression on a mean-spirited fast-food manager? Is it funny to see Ronnie take on some drug dealers? The last one is somewhat funny, if only because it gives Rogen and Danny McBride another excuse to play off each other.

The point is still the same, though. Much of this film is bogged down in realism, until the final 15 minutes. There have been many comparisons between this film and Taxi Driver. Don't worry; Taxi Driver is still a much better film, but in the way that Ronnie thinks and leads his interior monologues, a line can be drawn between him and Travis Bickle. The difference is this: what happens at the end of Taxi Driver could be explained as a fantasy ("could" being the operative word). What happens at the end of Observe and Report is, apparently, all real. All of it happens, and that leads me to wonder whether Hill wants this character to get off so easily. I won't ruin the ending for you, but in the same movie where Rogen both gives and is given a beatdown by local cops in the mall, it's hard to have a happy ending.

I admire Seth Rogen for doing something different (Ronnie is a truly repulsive person, except when he talks to Nell, a handicapped fast-food clerk), and I admire Hill for making this a studio-distributed comedy. If only Hill had gone just a bit further with the story and character. It may have been painful to watch, but the journey would have more sense and been more satisfying.