>>REVIEW
THE PRODUCERS
STARRING Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman
DIRECTED BY Susan Stroman
Opens Sunday, December 25
Check listings
Susan Stroman’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical version of Mel Brooks’ 1968 movie The Producers doesn’t so much engage the audience as it does hit it over the head with broad slapstick, hokey gags and more goofy faces than a clown convention. Sure, Brooks writes some groaners, but without his sauciness, his darkness and, hell, without Gene Wilder, The Producers is an empty shell dressed up in flashing lights.
The Producers is the story of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, a Broadway producer and accountant who hatch a plan to make millions by producing a surefire failure of a play, "Springtime for Hitler." Things take a turn for the worse for the bumbling duo when critics proclaim the play a work of satiric genius.
While Nathan Lane is fine (isn’t he always?) as floundering Broadway producer Bialystock, Matthew Broderick is too big for the screen as nervous wreck Bloom. Sometimes overdoing it for laughs works, especially in movies of the ’40s and ’50s, but in Broderick’s case it’s just irritating. His attempts to gain laughs with rolling eyes and hammy gesturing only register with half the audience.
Uma Thurman initially seems miscast as the Swedish bombshell, Ulla. However, what she lacks in voluptuousness she makes up for in spirit. She sings, she dances and she looks great in a swirling, sparkling blue dress. I’ll still opt for Kill Bill when I need an Uma fix, but she brings vitality to The Producers without being over-the-top.
The same cannot be said for Will Ferrell. I’m usually a sucker for Ferrell, even when he takes the Jerry Stiller approach to shouting as comedy. However, as neo-Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind, he’s loud, but only sometimes funny. I think this is supposed to indicate that Liebkind is a wingnut weirdo and not a fearsome propagator of revisionist history. Whatever, it’s a poorly realized character.
Much of The Producers is a toothless shadow of Brooks’ original and that really comes to light by the time we reach the film’s denouement, the production of "Springtime for Hitler." Here, Gary Beach as the highly effeminate Roger De Bris shines as he turns Hitler into the most fey little flower ever to bloom. Poking fun at gay stereotypes as much as at Adolph himself, it’s sharp and funny. Too bad it comes so close to the end, where we’re also treated to a musical recap of the plot. Too bad we have to sit through almost two hours of The Producers before we’re thrown these bones. |
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