A Review of Observe and Report

I really like dark comedies. I'm not easily offended (life's too short) and I like to being pushed morally by films. Out of all the dark comedies I've seen over the years, Observe and Report is not the darkest I've ever seen (that title belongs to Todd Solondz's Happiness, which you can see my previous article on here) but it is definitely on up there. It's been a day or so since I've seen Observe and Report and I feel like I've needed that time to really run this film through my head to come up with a definite view point on how I feel about it. In that amount of time, I have decided that while Observe and Report isn't a great movie or really an enjoyable one by any means, I did appreciate the attempt it made at being a purposefully dark and difficult piece of cinema in a time period where films like Fast and Furious are breaking box office records. 

As far as a being a good film goes, Observe and Report definitely falls short at times. The film is very inconsistent and awkward in its pacing and direction. I was very torn on how I felt about Jody Hill's take on his own script. Many times, it felt like he was going for a certain tone and other times a completely different one. He often shifts from a serious, Taxi Driver-esque feeling to a scene of slap stick comedy. The film's tone is all over the place and it just makes the pace of the whole thing feel sloppy. Scenes often don't feel right next to each other and the transitions between them are awkward and clunky. I've heard that Hill wanted the jumpy pace of the film to mirror the bipolar state of Ronnie Barnhardt's mind. I think that is a very interesting concept but the fact remains that it makes the film a little more flawed than it already is. The first half of the film really suffers from these pacing problems but it definitely gets a little better as it continues on. The fact that Hill is attempting a dark comedy is not the reason that I am unhappy with the mixture of serious elements and comedy. I just feel like a consistent tone was never truly established. You can have a dark comedy that feels like a whole, unified vision (see Bad Santa as a great example of this; I know many see this film as a Billy Bob Thorton vehicle but it's probably my favorite dark comedy). 

Along with having pacing and direction problems, Observe and Report also suffers from just not being very enjoyable at times. Like I said, I'm not easily offended and I enjoy my fair share of dark comedy but it was just hard for me to really care about any of the characters in this movie. Other than Ronnie, no one is really developed much for one to really attach themselves to them. When they are developed, they turn out to be mostly terrible people. Since Ronnie is a pretty hard person to like (though I did sympathize with him at certain times), it's tough to stick with the movie. 

Still, I found a lot of things in this movie to like. With the except of Michael Pena, the cast in this movie is pretty solid. Seth Rogen does a great job as Ronnie Barnhardt. He manages to make the character power hungry, bipolar, obsessive, self-destructive, delusional, pathetic and dangerous all at the same time. However, he never overdoes it and really manages to be surprisingly subtle. There are times where Rogen is able to really tell a story just with his blank stare. His psychiatric evaluation scene was pretty amazing and kind of terrifying. Anna Faris also does a great job at making the character of Brandi one of the most unlikable characters to grace the screen in some time. Her date with Rogen is one of the most awkward and disgusting things I've seen in a while. Ray Liotta is awesome (which is no surprise) as Detective Harrison, the rival of Ronnie. I really enjoyed the scene where he snapped on Ronnie in the mall manager's office. Collette Wolfe is great as Nell, the only really likable character in the entire film. I have to say that I loved Danny McBride's cameo and the entire scene that it occurred it. It was one of the times where I really felt that Hill really nailed the dark comedy tone of the film. I just wish he had managed to keep that tone through the entire film. The only cast member I had a problem with would be Michael Pena as Dennis. I didn't buy the lisp for one second and I just felt that the performance was kind of annoying and a little bit embarrassing (since Pena is actually a great actor).

Although I wouldn't say that I really enjoyed the movie completely, I would say that a lot of it was still really funny. I don't think that there was a five minute span that occurred without me laughing. Most of the laughs came from the fact that the movie was as messed up as it was. Plus they just had some really great lines here and there (the line about Chick-fil-a was classic and had me in pain). Although I don't think it fit well in the tone of the rest of the film (again, a common complaint from me in this review), the sequence with Ronnie and Dennis becoming friends was really funny to me just because it was so ridiculous and insane. However, for me and most people, the last half of the movie was definitely the highlight of the film's comedy. I won't give anything away but the last fifteen minutes of this movie is absolutely insane. I loved the Oldboy and The Dark Knight nods they did in one sequence and the shocking ending to another sequence (the audience exploded in laughter and gasps). I was so entertained and kind of floored by ballsy nature of the last fifteen minutes that I would say that it probably made me respect the movie much more than I originally had. 

Observe and Report is a hard movie to review. It's the kind of comedy that definitely does not come around very often. It is rare that you will see a movie that showcases such crassness, full frontal male nudity, foulness, dark human observations and truly messed up comedy bits (who knew date rape was funny?). In a sense, I feel like I kind of have to respect it just for going out as far as it did and in the completely non-apologetic manner that it did so. However, just because Observe and Report is an anti-mainstream piece cinema doesn't mean it is a good movie. The fact is that this movie is plagued with bad pacing, confused direction, a haphazard tone and is, at times, hard to enjoy. Still, if you're not easily offended and have a good sense of humor, it's got some great laughs, an insane ending and a great performance by Rogen.

6/10