Thursday, March 27, 2014

Bad Words - 2 1/2 stars

Jason Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a 40 year old who enters a national spelling bee.  All other contestants are under 12, but Guy found a loophole in the rulebook that allows him to enter. 

Guy isn't an easy character to like.  He has no filter and if he doesn't like someone, he'll say the worst thing he can think of to them just to get them to leave him alone.  But he meets his match with Chaitanya (Rohan Chand), an Indian boy who wants to be Guy's friend.  At first Guy just insults him, but nothing bothers Chaitanya.  He just smiles and keeps asking Guy questions.  Finally the two become friends.

The movie is really funny in spots.  I couldn't believe some of the things Guy says and does, including the ways he tries to psych his competitors out.  The best scenes in the movie are between Guy and Chaitanya.  The two have great chemistry together and it's nice to see this lonely kid with no friends form a bond with Guy, even if he is the worst role model a kid could ever have.

But one problem with this movie is that there isn't much to it.  Guy's reason for joining the spelling bee are kept secret for most of the movie, and when we find out what the reason is it's a letdown.  There are far too many scenes of Guy and Jenny (Kathryn Hahn), a reporter who is writing a story about him.  Every time they are together, Jenny is trying to interview him and he's always blowing her off.  After a couple of these scenes, it gets tedious.

Since we don't know what's motivating Guy, it makes it hard to root for him.  There's nothing wrong with a flawed character, but we need something to help us empathize with him.  In this movie, he's just a horrible person who hates everyone.  It's really funny at times, but I found myself getting really bored with the movie anytime the jokes let up.  It's one of those movies where the best parts are all in the trailer. 

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