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Two Great Tastes: Handler & Pullman
June 20, 2007

It was too hot to move a muscle this weekend. Too hot to move an eyeball even, which of course rules out reading. Instead, to commemorate the arrival of paralyzing summer heat, I decided to treat myself to a refreshing Bill Pullman film fest. First came Independence Day and then, naturally, Spaceballs, and finally a 2003 movie I hadn't ever seen before called Rick.

Handler pulls Pullman's strings

Rick is a wicked little film about a well-meaning businessman/ widower/single father (Pullman) who decides his scummy boss needs to die. It's based on an opera (Rigoletto), so of course no one's expecting a happy ending, but get this: screenwriter is Daniel Handler. What a great team! Pullman's restrained weirdness and buttoned-up everyman rage matches beautifully with Handler's self-conscious, self-denying characters and the slightly-off-kilter worlds they find themselves in.

And it's vintage handler: dark, fun, and sharp around the edges. The dialogue pops like bubblegum, and the actors are all in; if it gets a little clunky in the plotting, I blame the source material--from what I understand, opera's not so much with the subtlety. Pullman is brilliant as always, quietly unraveling his tightly-wound, yelp-prone family man, and the dynamic between father and teenage daughter feels surpringly fresh--even when Pullman's delivering the original parenting cliche: "Because I said so."

Rick is definitely worth checking out for adult fans of Lemony Snicket; those who loved Adverbs will dig it with a shovel. Handler's even got a cameo--watch for his stirring performance as "Perky Waiter."

Posted by Marc Schultz on June 20, 2007 | Comments (3)