Subject: Review: What Planet Are You From? (2000)

From: [email-masked] (Lars Lindahl)
Date: 8 Mar 2000 07:20:25 GMT

Review by Lars Lindahl

"What Planet Are You From?" (2000)

Directed by Mike Nichols
Written by Michael Leeson, Garry Shandling, Ed Solomon, and Peter Tolan 

Starring Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Linda
Fiorentino, and John Goodman.  

What Planet Are You From? can be divided into three distinct segments. First we
follow alien Harold Anderson (Garry Shandling) on his mission to impregnate a
woman on earth. Far and away the funniest segment of the film (despite the fact
that it is one long extended joke), it remains consistently amusing. We don't
know exactly why he is trying to woo an earth woman but it is still funny. The
dialogue is fresh, the characters are well introduced, and the premise is
original. The most hilarious and ironic joke of this segment is that this
clueless alien, just trying to complete a revolutionary mission for his planet
is indistinguishable from some obnoxious earth jerk just trying to score. 

For this reason, Harold finds himself interacting and bonding with sexist
perverts such as Perry (Greg Kinnear) at his fake job. His relationship with
these characters makes up the second segment of the film. At this point, What
Planet? begins to lose some of its fresh humor and originality as it shifts
from Harold's desperate search to succeed for his planet to a disappointing
who's-sleeping-with-who-and-why ensemble piece. The segment contains way too
many pointless side stories that would have made the movie better if they did
not exist at all. Who cares if Perry and Harold are competing for a vice
president position at their job? Or if the man trying to find out exactly who
Harold is (John Goodman) is having marital problems at home? The answers to
these questions only distract the viewer from the central point.

The third segment has Harold taking the next step by marrying a former
alcoholic,  Susan, (Annette Bening) in hopes of improving his chances to have a
child. There are some very memorable scenes between Susan and Harold, but these
pleasant moments surprisingly lead up to one of the most idiotic endings I've
seen in a long time. The characters become excessively cartoonish and, out of
nowhere, the script gives them extremely foolish lines. It gets mushy and
overly dramatic in some areas and way too slapstick in other areas. It almost
seems like a different screenwriter or director contributed at this point with
completely opposite ideas of how the characters should act and talk. 

When examining the film as a whole, it is a disappointment, because only one
segment is totally satisfying. Despite some lively performances from the
talented cast, the script does not have enough energy to keep up. It seems like
there was only one real joke within What Planet? and that joke was quickly
overused just as the first segment was ending. If only the movie was a 40
minute short in which Harold gets the girl, has sex, gets the girl pregnant,
and leaves. It might have worked, and if not, the short would have been a lot
better than the real thing, a 120 minute movie that didn't work. For true
entertainment in which aliens pretend to be humans with hilarious consequences,
watch Third Rock from the Sun. It's amazing how that show has been funny for
years now using the same joke that What Planet Are You From? couldn't make
funny for two hours. 

Grade: ** (out of four stars)

Lars Attacks!
http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/larsattacks