First off, I have read the famed book that inspired this film and I found it disappointing. The film does capture the silly anarchy of the book fairly well, but it still wasn’t all that funny.
Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman, LOVE ACTUALLY) wakes up one morning to discover that his house has been scheduled for destruction to make way for a throughway and he didn’t know it. But this is the least of his worries, because his friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def, BROWN SUGAR), who is really an alien, informs him that the Earth has been scheduled for destruction to make way for an intergalactic throughway. So Ford and Martin hitch a ride on the demolition crew’s spaceship and thus starts their crazy adventures throughout the galaxy.
Later they end up on the stolen ship of the brainless (literally) president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell, MATCHSTICK MEN) and his assistant Trillian (Zooey Deschanel, ALMOST FAMOUS). By coincident, Trillian and Arthur meet on Earth before and he developed a quick crush on her. However, when he was not willing to just dash off to Madagascar with her, Zaphod easily swept her away in his spaceship.
The humor in the film plays like nerdy Monty Python silliness. I felt a lot of the satirical aspects of the world and its characters were lost in its lightning fast pace. The screenplay seemed to be trying to cram all the highlights of the books into one film. With pacing so fast, a lot of the jokes were lost in bad timing.
However, the film is often saved by a great visual representation of the world and pitch perfect casting. Freeman is great as the average Joe Arthur. Mos Def plays the carefree humanoid alien with the perfect balance of silliness and dry wit. It would be hard to think of a better actress to handle this world better than Deschanel. Rockwell is thoroughly annoying as Zaphod, but that is exactly how he should be. And it was a streak of brilliance to cast Alan Rickman (ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) as the voice of the depressed robot Marvin and Stephen Fry (GOSFORD PARK) as the voice of the Guide.
Highlights in regards to design include the character design of the bureaucracy obsessed Vogons and the planet construction facility. The main problem with the film is that Arthur is an inactive participant in the story. Though the book’s author Douglas Adams participated in writing the screenplay before his death, the only active part Arthur plays is in his relationship with Trillian, which only kind of works. For most of the movie, he really is just along for the wild ride. For fans of the book, I’m sure this film will be thoroughly satisfying, but it misses too much for novices. In working as a highlight reel of the books, the film will be a treat for fans, but will not create many new ones.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
