Steve Carell really kicked off his big screen career with the awkward innocent in THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN. Now he plays another awkward innocent, however Barry makes VIRGIN’s Andy look world weary. This mouse taxidermist might be the most clueless character to arrive in theaters since DUMB AND DUMBER.
Barry becomes the perfect idiot for Tim (Paul Rudd, ROLE MODELS), an eager analyst at an equity firm. He’s hoping for a big promotion and his boss Lance (Bruce Greenwood, STAR TREK) has invited him to a big wigs’ dinner where each person must bring the biggest misfit they can find so that they can make fun of them. Tim desperately wants to get the promotion so he can impress his successful art curator girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA). But Julie thinks the whole idea of this “dinner for winners” is cruel.
As Tim tries to make things right with Julie, Barry shows up at his door and indirectly makes everything worse. But Barry isn’t the only idiot in Tim’s life. Julie represents the self-absorbed artist Kieran (Jemaine Clement, TV’s FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS), who photographs himself dressed as an animal. When he thinks his work is crap he uses excrement as paint to express his feelings. Barry mistakenly tells Tim’s stalker Darla (Lucy Punch, HOT FUZZ) where he lives. Darla is really into role playing and she has a tongue like an anteater.
Then Barry introduces Tim to his boss at the IRS – Therman (Zach Galifianakis, THE HANGOVER). Therman believes he has mind control. Barry believes Therman has mind control and cowers at his presence. Therman wears turtlenecks that aren’t nearly as classy as Barry’s clip-on ties. Therman parades around like he’s the grand wizard of his own world. He reminded me of an extreme version of Jack Black’s character in HIGH FIDELITY. If Barry was a superhero, Therman would be his arch-enemy.
Barry is remarkably naïve, but it has an endearing quality. He doesn’t mean anybody harm and would even go out of his way to help out a stranger. He’s gullible and ignorant. The information he doesn’t know he just fills in the spaces with what he thinks happened. Kind of like what news personalities do on a nightly basis. I mentioned earlier that he was a taxidermist. He actually meets Tim when he runs out into the street to retrieve a dead mouse. He takes the rodents home, stuffs them and then dresses them up for elaborate scenes. A mouse couple in a boat made of cheese. Historical tableaux starring such famed people as The Earl of Sandwich and Sir Francis Bacon, who together Barry tells us invented the BLT. The more you get to know Barry the more you love him. Tim says that Barry is like an earwig that gets into your brain and lays eggs. That’s about right.
When we finally get to the “dinner for winners,” we get the most interesting characters in the film. They’re vastly more interesting than the cocky suits that have brought them together to ridicule them or the clichéd freaks Kieran and Darla. That’s part of the problem. None of the characters are nearly as interesting as Barry and Therman. A movie with them battling it out could be awesome. Rudd’s Tim is either bland “stockbroker” type or exasperated man. At a certain point, I simply started watching the film from Barry’s point of view and said to heck with Tim. He’s the real schmuck.
So here is how you can get the most out of the film. Because at times, it’s very funny. Look at Tim’s story as the set up for Barry’s journey. Barry has been put down his whole life. He just wants to make his wonderfully kitschy art and meet some people who won’t talk crap behind his back. At the dinner, he gets to meet some amazing people and show off his talents. He might not be the biggest idiot there, but we can’t all be alpha male businessmen can we?
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
