DOCTOR DOLITTLE (20th Century Fox) Starring: Eddie Murphy, Oliver Platt, voices of Norm Macdonald, Albert Brooks, Chris Rock, Julie Kavner, Garry Shandling. Screenplay: Nat Maudlin and Larry Levin, based on the stories by Hugh Lofting. Producers: John Davis, Joseph M. Singer and David T. Friendly. Director: Betty Thomas. MPAA Rating: PG (profanity, adult humor) Running Time: 85 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but a sad development has seized juvenile comedy as we know it. Only token film-makers like the Farrelly brothers (KINGPIN, DUMB AND DUMBER) have resisted what I call the John Hughes-ification of low-brow humor: the insistence upon wrapping up 90 minutes of crude sight gags with a great big group hug and an edifying life lesson. In effect, it's a con playing on the low-level guilt of viewers who want to convince themselves that the bodily function humor is just a necessary evil on the way to an Important Social Message. And I'll bet they read Playboy for the articles, too.
Some viewers obviously manage to get past this dichotomy. Personally, I don't want any metaphorical chocolate in my peanut butter. DOCTOR DOLITTLE takes a salty little dab of peanut butter and smothers it in chocolate syrup. Eddie Murphy stars as physician John Dolittle, whose childhood gift for communicating with animals was throttled out of him because it made him different. Now a straight-laced family man with a thriving practice, Dolittle has no memory of his zooglotism until a fender bender revives his latent ability. Suddenly Dr. Dolittle is hearing animal voices all around him, the news of which gets around to sick animals everywhere keen to take advantage of being able to tell him exactly what ails them. This development troubles non-believers like his medical partner Dr. Mark Weller (Oliver Platt) and his wife Lisa (Kristen Wilson), both of whom suspect John is going a bit animal crackers.
DOCTOR DOLITTLE has plenty of predictable charms, most of them connected to the digitally-doctored menagerie surrounding the good doctor. The A-list voice talent -- Norm Macdonald as the sarcastic family mutt, Albert Brooks as a depressed circus tiger, Julie Kavner and Garry Shandling as a pair of bickering pigeons -- offers plenty of appeal, though prominently-featured Chris Rock as a guinea pig can only crank up the volume on his rather boring lines. The other critters spend a lot of time doing cute tricks and firing off wise cracks, particularly MacDonald and Gilbert Gottfried in a brief bit as a dog obsessed with chasing a ball. It's hardly classic comedy, but it's effective enough for a few belly laughs, even with the obligatury use of various animal calls of nature by screenwriters Nat Maudlin and Larry Levin.
Low-brow comedy isn't the problem; lacking the nerve to stick with low-brow comedy is. DOCTOR DOLITTLE stretches and strains for sub-plots on which to hang sentiment, from the self-absorbed attempts of Dr. Weller to sell the practice to an HMO, to the troubles of Dolittles introverted youngest daughter (Kyla Pratt), to Dolittle's noble efforts to save the tiger from a blood clot (and you haven't really brushed aside a tear until you've seen the touching hand-in-paw scene). "Be who you are and love who you are," Dolittle tells his daughter with paternal gravity, and at precisely that moment you may want to reach out, smack him in the head and tell him to get back to the goofy animal tricks.
Actually, it would have been nice if Murphy had gotten back to any tricks at all. Murphy can be a brilliant comic performer, but he works his finest magic as an instigator. Aside from a few token moments of frantic behavior, he is asked merely to react in DOCTOR DOLITTLE, to play straight man to the talking animals, which is a huge waste of his talents. I suppose it made sense to try another wacky re-make after the success of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, and I suppose it made sense to hope that director Betty Thomas (THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, PRIVATE PARTS) could work similar slight-of-hand with another premise that didn't sound very promising. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but Doctor Dolittle only works until you realize it would have worked much better with Murphy -- and the whole film -- let off the leash of excess sincerity. When the guffaws give way to solemnly-intoned platitudes, it spoils all the fun of a good pigeon-crap-on-the-head gag. Of course, I only watch for the Important Social Message.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 crass menageries: 5.
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