Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Lily Tomlin, Natasha Lyonne, Gregory Smith, Stephen Root, Elaine Stritch. Directed by Todd Holland. PG-13, 2 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com/film/ Archive reviews at http:us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott
In the press kit for "Krippendorf's Tribe," director Todd Holland states "I was attracted to the sort of journey that this family goes through. It's a family story with a lot of heart. They lose the glue of their existence when the mother dies but then, through some quite ridiculous and desperate actions, they start to see each other again." Apparently Todd has been sniffing the glue of their existence. "Krippendorf's Tribe" is a loud, rowdy farce that's occassionally funny, but "a family story with a lot of heart?" Give me a break. The film begins as James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) looks at video footage of his late wife. He stares wistfully at the screen, drinking in the images of three happy kids cavorting with their parents, a mom and pop anthropology team, and members of a cheerful New Guinea tribe. Those days are gone. Deeply depressed following the death of his wife, Krippendorf has spent the last two years hanging around the house, living off a grant to study an "undiscovered" tribe in New Guinea. His alienated kids co-exist with him, glowering in varying degrees of hostility. Then, overbearing anthropologist Veronica Micelli ("Dharma and Greg's" Jenna Elfman) pops up to inform Krippendorf that he must deliver a lecture about the tribe that evening. A panicked Krippendorf bluffs his way through the lecture, answering questions about the non-existent Shelmikedmu tribe, (the name is cobbled together from Shelly, Mike, and Edmund, the names of his kids) while senior anthropologist Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) looks on with suspicion. The Shelmikedmu capture the imaginations of academia, and Krippendorf races off to create film footage of the tribe, using his family as bogus natives. So where is our "family film with a lot of heart" at this point? Following the loss of their mother, the kids have lived in a trashy home for two years, watching their father lay on the couch, living off stolen money. Faced with the possibility of being caught, he bullies the kids into helping him create an elaborate series of lies to cover his crime. Gosh, I'm tearing up just thinking about this family film with a lot of heart, and we haven't even got to the parts about ritual circumcision, menstruation, flatulence, pig urine, and eating bugs yet. Oddly enough, the bodily function jokes are actually pretty entertaining, providing most of the occasional laughs in a movie that's far more frantic than funny. The creation and presentation of the "ritual tribal circumcision" footage provides some amusement. Later, young Mike apes his father's behavior at a school pageant, causing a riot when he explains how the Shelmikedmu "purify menstruating young virgins with pig urine," using a real classmate and a real pig for his demonstration. The scene is gross, but genuinely funny. The same can't be said for most of the film. Despite loads of gross-out gags, "Krippendorf's Tribe" just isn't funny enough. The cast spends a great deal of time racing about frantically, providing far too few laughs for all the fuss. Todd Holland produced and directed many episodes of one of the funniest programs on television, "The Larry Sanders Show," but he doesn't handle this material with the same skill. The film suffers from a rushed feeling, with too many characters and too little character development. Lily Tomlin's Ruth Allen is an example of great potential that is wasted. The smug, self-righteous anthropologist hurries off to New Guinea to prove that the Shelmikedmu aren't real. Stomping through the jungle barking orders at her tribal guides, Ruth begins to come alive as a comic creation, but the scenes are merely used as quick-cut throwaways, never allowed a chance to fully blossom. That's typical of the film, as Holland takes a simple story concept and tries to jam way too much into it. Instead, we get an overdose of Jenna Elfman's terminally-perky Veronica. The in-your-face opportunist is overdone and annoying, becoming funny only when she's mad. After spotting herself in one of Krippendorf's bogus documentaries, demonstrating the "mating patterns of the Shelmikedmu," she becomes enraged, enacting revenge on Krippendorf during a moderately amusing talk show segment. Richard Dreyfuss, by the way, handles the central role with his usual staccato gusto. Ultimately, one wonders who "Krippendorf's Tribe" was made for. Adult audiences will have little patience for the large gaps between laughs. Family audiences are unlikely to appreciate a feel-good comedy where the hero gets a woman drunk, then films her having sex with him so he can show it on TV to bolster his massive fraud. But there is an upside. On the way home, Mom and Dad can spend quality time with the kids, answering all of their questions about circumcision and menstruation. Have fun, folks!
Copyright 1998, Ed Johnson-Ott
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