Huh

As part of the Anniversary 2008 festivities, we went to a matinee of "Walk Hard" this afternoon. Very, very funny. Very, very enjoyable.

And yet...

John C. Reilly nails it. Yeah, this is a guy who could play either role in "True West" seven nights a week for two months running and not even break a sweat. He's a treasure.

The music is spectacular. From a "Fresh Air" interview, I know that the writer/producers had something like six to ten teams of songwriters working on each assignment, with a brief on the tone, meaning and significance of each song. No wonder, with hundreds of options to choose from, that every song in the movie is a jewel. I am a particular fan of the song that plays over the credits, "Hey! Did You Hear the News? (Dewey Cox Died)" -- which appears to be written and sung by Dewey Cox himself.

So you've got half the movie buffed to a high, perfect gloss. And then you cast Jack Black as Paul McCartney.

Look, maybe I'm not the biggest fan of Paul McCartney, but you are hamstringing yourself and any/all Beatles-derived comedy if you start by casting Jack Black as Paul McCartney. And put him next to three much-closer stand ins for John, George and Ringo.

It's not just that, but that's the biggest non-spoiler I can find to illustrate my point. Reilly kills himself to sell the reality of his character. The songwriters clearly went all out to nail the musical numbers. And then some combination of Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow sold them down the river by cutting the reality out from underneath the film.

If you've seen the film, you're probably thinking by now of two or three other things that, "Naked Gun" like, strip out any pretense of realism. At the time, they are huge, gut-deep laughs.

But I'm not sure they're worth keeping in the film. At some point, maybe about a third in, I stopped caring about the story and started waiting for the next song parody and/or cameo to show up. Nothing else held my interest. Even poor Tim Meadows, who has some great lines, couldn't keep me from thinking "C'mon, c'mon, let's get on with it already."

My two favorite moments in "Knocked Up" are the Vegas 'shroom trip and the final delivery scene -- both as utterly grounded, utterly real and believable as anything I've ever seen. The realism there doesn't prevent the movie from still having some huge, huge laughs, and gave me good reason to watch it again if I get the chance.

So I know Apatow understands the importance of keeping comedy grounded, but for some reason, that sense eluded him here. I have to think there was a way to tell this story, still be hilarious, and, you know, not hit that weirdly cartoonish note.

God, I hope so.