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

From: Scott Renshaw <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Feb 2000 19:04:50 GMT

WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM?
(Columbia)
Starring:  Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear,
Ben Kingsley, Linda Fiorentino, Judy Greer, Richard Jenkins.
Screenplay:  Michael Leeson & Garry Shandling and Peter Tolan.
Producers:  Mike Nichols, Garry Shandling and Neil Machlis.
Director:  Mike Nichols.
MPAA Rating:  R (profanity, sexual situations, adult themes, nudity)
Running Time:  103 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.

     I started to get a sense for how good WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? could
be at around the fifth or sixth iteration of The Gag. It's the running gag
that comes from the unique identity of its main character, an alien known
on his home planet as H1449-6 (Garry Shandling) but tagged Harold Anderson
for his mission on earth. Part of an emotionless all-male race that
reproduces via cloning and has conquest of other worlds always on its
mind, Harold is sent to our world to impregnate an earth woman, thus 
preparing the way for an invasion through alien progeny. Unfortunately,
the men of this world have evolved without genitalia for lack of need, so
Harold is equipped with an artificial organ -- one that hums when he is
aroused.

     As a gimmick, it's positively inspired, providing an auditory cue
for every time Harold starts feeling a bit randy. It's also a gimmick that
could have grown really old really fast, turning WHAT PLANET ARE YOU 
FROM? into a one-joke movie without much to laugh at. I'm guessing that
there are probably three dozen humming penis gags in WHAT PLANET ARE
YOU FROM? And I'll be damned if I didn't laugh at every one of them.
	
     The reason the joke works for so long and with so many variations is
that Shandling (who also co-wrote) and company realize that you can still
write a smart comic script that happens to include some lowbrow subjects
(he proved that point for several years on "The Larry Sanders Show." Part
high-concept comedy, part broad farce and part exploration of male-female
dynamics, it's actually a clever spin on relationship tomes like "Men Are
from Mars, Women Are from Venus" and "You Just Don't Understand." Plenty
of sharp self-help comedy comes from Shandling's relationship with
recovering alcoholic Susan (Annette Bening), and novice lover Harold's
difficulties understanding his new compaion. Meanwhile, the supporting
cast offers plenty of support:  Greg Kinnear as Harold's sexually and
professionally predatory co-worker; Ben Kingsley as the dead-serious
leader of Harold's planet; and the ever-reliable John Goodman as an FAA
investigator who may be on to Harold's identity.

     I suppose you could say WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? is sort of an
unruly film. Actually, it's a _very_ unruly film, often leaping through
sub-plots and minor characters too quickly to do them justice. Goodman's
troubles with his wife, which might have made a marvelous counterpoint to
the alien's relationship troubles, instead serve as the source for a
couple of throwaway gags. Linda Fiorentino is woefully underused as
Kinnear's femme fatale-ish wife, and there's a rushed feeling to all the
scenes on Harold's home world (as though the budget wasn't quite there for
a more thorough peek at their culture). For a film from Mike Nichols -- a
director whose films almost always click with comic precision -- WHAT
PLANET is a bit ragged and scattershot.

     And it's also very, very funny. Films with laugh-out-loud moments are
embarassingly rare, which makes it all the more wonderful that WHAT PLANET
hits on so many levels of humor. The dialogue is full of the kind of  
razor-sharp punch lines that recall vintage Woody Allen. Subtle bits of
physical acting add kick to the simplest scenes (watch for Shandling's
priceless change of expression during his first date with Susan). 
Predictable sight gags are given unpredictable twists. A weird shift to a
hard-boiled exchange between Shandling and Goodman adds an effectivley
bizarre late change of pace. Even the warmer moments of gentle character
humor work. But most of all, there's The Gag -- not necessarily because it
inspires the biggest laughs, but because it inspires the most. WHAT
PLANET ARE YOU FROM? may be messy, but it sure is plenty entertaining. 
Shandling and his cohorts prove that exquisite execution can take even the
silliest concepts and make them ... well, hum. 

     On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 genitaliens:  7.

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