★★★
“Bad Words” marks the feature film directorial debut of
Jason Bateman. He’s no stranger to being behind the camera. He directed an
episode of his cult television series “Arrested Development” for Fox. And
before that, he directed three episodes of “The Hogan Family” when he was 18,
making him the youngest ever director for the Director’s Guild of American at
the time. So what took him so long to break into directing a feature film? I
suppose he was waiting for the right script to come along. “Bad Words” was a
very worthy script and he’s turned it into a very worthy first feature.
Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) sure seems like a loser, but he
might just be a genius. He’s also a ragging asshole, to put it nicely. Through
a small loophole in the rulebook, Guy has worked his way into a children’s
spelling bee. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade, and the contestants
need to have not graduated from the eighth grade in order to participate. So
Guy is in, much to the chagrin of all the parents and judges. And it’s not a
piece of cake either. They’re not easy words; anyone who has seen the spelling
bees on TV know they don’t take it easy on these kids. But since Guy is some
sort of genius, he gets through with relative ease. All he needs is a media
sponsor, which he has in Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn).
After winning a regional championship, Guy is off to the
national Golden Quill Spelling Bee in Los Angeles. On his way out there, he
meets one of the contestants, Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a 10 year old bursting
with energy and face that never frowns. Guy wants nothing to do with him, yet
they end up on the same hotel floor.
Dr. Bernice Deagan (Allison Janney) oversees the Golden
Quill and she hates the fact that Guy is here. She vows to get him out as soon
as possible. The contest itself is the brainchild of Dr. Bowman (Philip Baker
Hall) who is having it broadcast live on TV for the first time. Guy knows this,
and its all part of diabolical little scheme. He may be a jerk and come across
as a loser, but he’s very smart. He knows exactly what he’s doing. And he’s
here for a purpose, one that he doesn’t share, to Jenny’s dismay.
Bateman has shown time and time again that he’s a great
comedic actor (which he still doesn’t get a whole lot of credit for), but with
“Bad Words” he proves himself as a very capable comedic director. The premise
of this film, on the surface, seems very remedial and empty, but Bateman is
able to breathe a lot of light into it, giving the film quite a bit of heart
and depth.
The script comes from first timer Andrew Dodge, who has written
what will surely be one of the year’s funniest movies. The whole story is
simplistic and could have easily been told as a short film, but it works well
in its extended length. Behind all the crude humor is a big-hearted narrative
that resonates well. And while it may come across predictable, the final act is
a riot with some unexpected happenings.
Bateman is solid as usual. He’s always seemed very
comfortable in leading roles and I wish he’d accept more of those parts.
Kathryn Hahn is strong in her role too. She’s been around for awhile in smaller
roles and on TV shows, but I think she’s about to really break out into much
bigger and more visible roles. I also liked seeing Philip Baker Hall in his role,
as small as it was. Despite that, it’s probably one of his stronger
performances in awhile.
But the real star of the film is young Rohan Chand. He
steals every scene that he’s in. At first he might seem like he’s just going to
be annoying nuisance of a secondary character, but he becomes a much larger
part of the plot as we move along. He lonely, but that doesn’t seem to bother
him. He’s a happy-go-lucky character and Chand plays it to near perfection.
This movie is all his.
As the film’s director, Bateman has taken the relatively
basic premise of “Bad Words” and made it into something much more meaningful. It
doesn’t have an enormous impact emotionally, something that I thought it might
achieve about halfway through, but it’s still genuinely heartfelt. Just because
it’s a simple idea blended together with pervasive language and foul humor
doesn’t mean it can’t be genuine. Bateman as a director has proven himself
capable of making movies like that.
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