FOOL'S PARADISE (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

Fool's Paradise, Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 11, 2023

Charlie Day, a very funny actor, takes a significant swing with his directorial debut, and one ends up wishing he had played it just a bit safer instead. Fool's Paradise is a satire of modern Hollywood, seen from the perspective of a clown who both is silent and might have fit in just fine during the silent era of Hollywood comedies. Day's mysterious character regularly dons a consistent costume, complete with a signature hat (neither a porkpie nor a bowler, like the old comic greats Day is echoing here, but a trilby), and is prone to all sorts of accidental shenanigans.

The actor/director, who also wrote the screenplay, begins with a very promising idea here. Then, everything collapses as soon as the idea runs its course in the first act.

The basic notion of the movie is how Hollywood can pretty much make a star of anyone, before unceremoniously breaking them. Day plays an officially unnamed man, a patient at a Los Angeles psychiatric facility whom his doctor refers to as the epitome of a "nobody." He arrived nameless, kinless, and friendless with an undefinable mental condition that's a combination of age regression, a desire to fit in, an inability to speak, and various other symptoms that would be a doctor's dream to study. Unfortunately, the state won't pay for any of that, so the poor guy is shoved on and off a bus into the heart of Hollywood, where they're always looking for a "somebody."

That initial premise is sort of ingenious, especially when a big-time producer (played by the late Ray Liotta) discovers the recent psychiatric patient on the street. The producer is having some problems on the set of his current project, a biography of Billy the Kid, because his Method-acting star refuses to leave his trailer. As it turns out, this stranger is an exact double of the actor, and in a move to show the spoiled actor who's really in charge, the producer gets the displaced man into costume, throws him in front of the camera, and hopes for the best.

All of this is pretty funny, as the crew deals with a newcomer who can't help but stare straight into the camera, while the guy's sudden co-stars, Cristiana Dior (Kate Beckinsale) and Chad Luxt (Adrien Brody), find themselves picking up bad habits from the newbie. Meanwhile, a down-on-his-luck publicist named Lenny (Ken Jeong), who has snuck his way on set, decides to make this nobody from nowhere his one and only client. Due to a misunderstanding involving a coffee order, everyone starts calling the guy "Latte Pronto," and that, unfortunately, is about where Day's senses of narrative focus, comedic consistency, and thematic promise run out of steam.

The rest of the plot isn't a mess, because it basically charts Latte's rise, on account of everyone leading themselves and each other to believe that he's a star-in-the-making, and fall, since that's also what the industry sets up to happen. The central joke, though, doesn't ring true, because Latte is perceived and accepted as a legitimate actor by the industry, the press, and the public. Even within the realm of a broad satire such as this, it's difficult to buy the premise that anyone would see Latte as anything other than a terrible actor or an intentional joker.

Obviously, the grand error in judgment is a big part of the joke, since everyone here is as much of a clown as Latte—if not more so. They see his silence as some hidden brilliance, his odd acting technique as something novel, and his willingness to do just about anything—even poorly—as something to admire. The over-the-top nature of these supporting characters, many of whom appear to make a joke and disappear once the punch line is delivered, a mistake for the attempted comedy here, too. The big, brash personalities of these assorted players (with many of them being distracting one-scene cameos from recognizable actors) aren't in service of the joke. They become the joke—a repetitive one at that, as well as one that completely overshadows Day's character and whatever point the filmmaker is attempting to make.

Perhaps trying to distract from the uncertainty, the plot and the gags become a clutter of half-baked ideas, with Latte having a whirlwind romance and marriage-of-publicity with Christiana, becoming involved in a superhero movie, accidentally gaining a reputation as a hothead, going along with his fame despite his general disinterest, and watching it all fall apart with as little rationale as it came to be. Essentially, Fool's Paradise attempts to do far too much with way too little, resulting in a shallow, indistinct satire.

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