Strangers
With Candy is based on the cult HBO classic of the same name. While this show
might be foreign to many folks out there, the high profile cameos in the picture
(Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Allison Janney, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
etc.) and the presence of the increasingly popular Stephen Colbert should lend
a helpful measure of momentum. The film has actually been in the can for quite
some time. In fact, I saw it a couple of years ago at Sundance, and yet it's just
this weekend getting a wide release - Hollywood works in strange and mysterious
ways.
I
believe the Strangers With Candy web site gives the best description possible
of this film's plot; "this prequel to the famed television series tells the
tale of Jerri Blank (a hilarious Amy Sedaris), a forty-seven year old ex-con junkie-hooker
who decides to return home after thirty two years of sewing her wild oats."
Yes,
that about sums it up. Upon arriving home she is barely allowed into the house
by her new step mommy (Deborah Rush) and is crushed to learn that her beloved
father (Dan Hedeya) had slipped into a coma shortly after she ran away. Despondent
over this, Jerri decides it's time to turn her life around - her first move -
graduate High School. An accomplishment her father's doctor assures her, may be
the very thing to lift her father from his two decade long coma. Still Jerri's
years in the joint have left her a little rougher around the edges than your run
of the mill Billy Madison..
Strangers
With Candy is nothing if not thin on plot - it's more or less a set up to allow
the many funny people involved to do their thing. And while I wouldn't say Strangers
With Candy is as consistently funny as say, Anchorman, it does offer up hearty
laughs. When Jerri refers to her privates as her "Wet-On Sour," I thought
I was going to piss myself.
Amy
Sedaris is an absolute riot as the clueless Jerri Blank. This is, perhaps, the
most likably repugnant heroine since Hatchet Face graced the screen in John Waters'
hilarious Cry Baby. What's more, Sedaris has a true gift for physical comedy.
Be it the way she scrunches her nose, her various eye twitches, or her come hither
body language. Sedaris simply goes for it in one of the most over-the-top comic
performances in recent memory. Just looking at her had me in stitches. I suppose
the oddest fact about the whole thing is that she's quite a lovely woman sans
the Jerri make-up. Stephen Colbert is a scream as a smarmy, self-serving science
teacher, and given Colbert's escalating popularity not to mention Hoffman's Oscar
win, now is actually a pretty opportune time to release the film.
Paul
Dinello (who co-wrote and directed the film) is perfectly goofy as an art teacher
while physically imposing Greg Hollimon has some wildly funny moments as Principal
Blackman (his name alone put a smile on my face). As for the previously mentioned
cameos, they're surprisingly dull and gimmicky. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that
Broderick, Parker, Janney, and Hoffman are fans of the show, but they aren't given
anything terribly memorable to do - particularly Broderick who gets a pretty hefty
amount of screen-time..
Director
Paul Dinello's sporadically paced comedy works best when Amy Sedaris and Stephen
Colbert are front and center, and thankfully, that's a good bit of the time. And
while this film version of the TV show isn't exactly a laugh per second, affair,
some of the bigger laughs are extremely memorable. And now that it's finally receiving
a wide release, it's like Jerri herself would proclaim "there is light at
the end of the chili hole."
