TOYS
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
TOYS is a film directed by Barry Levinson, written by Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson. It stars Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Robin Wright, Joan Cusak, LL Cool J, with Donald O'Connor. It is rated PG-13, for mild profanity and mature humor.
TOYS was a disappointment. I had hoped for something a lot more energetic, if nothing else. There is no plot, merely a skeleton on which to hang a dazzling visual experience. Michael Gambon and Robin Williams were both too restrained, too whimsical. They were both outshone by Joan Cusak, the only member of the cast who really got the idea of what they should have been doing. In fact, the rapper LL Cool J put in a more interesting performance, even given his inexperience as an actor.
Barry Levinson is to blame, of that there can be no doubt. It was his idea nearly 15 years ago. He and his former writing partner Valerie Curtin wrote the script then; their collaborations include BEST FRIENDS and JUSTICE FOR ALL, both inferior to his solo writing work (DINER, TIN MEN) or to the films he only directed (RAIN MAN, BUGSY). Perhaps, he should have asked Terry Gilliam to be his script doctor; it definitely lacks (and needs) that kind of dark imagination. Levinson is more interested in making a couple of rather obvious points than in telling a story. For example, he rathers earnestly pursues the idea that weapons are toys for the bloody-minded, that we can choose whether we want our toys to be life-affirming or lethal. He gives us some wonderful visual effects, including a very pointed and chilling scene of generals qua skeletons. But, are we to suppose that Barry Levinson thinks that this is some special vision, some unique insight, vouchsafed only to him that he can squander so much talent to so little purpose?
If you want to immerse yourself in Robin Williams' genius for improvisation, go back to ALADDIN or rent Levinson's GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM. You get only a few really memorable Williamsesque moments in TOYS and long stretches where he has all too little to do. Williams gives his all to promoting the film for Levinson and indeed the trailer, shot in a Spokane wheat field, is vastly better than the movie it advertises.
Of the other performers, Joan Cusak is the most memorable in the role of Williams' sister. She is otherwordly, fragile, the last word in gentle space cadets; when her big denouement arrives, we actually can believe it as earned and established both by the script and by her performance. It is one of the few bright spots in the film. Michael Gambon, who was so loathsome in THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER, is mostly addled here. His evilness become really clear only too late in the film, a villain who consults his invalid father and calls him Daddy; it does not suffice. Robin Wright as the love interest is supposed to be a female version of Williams, but she fails to convince. LL Cool J is blunt and slightly amateurish, but earnest and direct in the way of gifted amateurs. He plays Gambon's son and the facts of skin color and lineage are entertainingly ignored. Finally, Donald O'Connor puts in a charming cameo as the dying owner of the Zevo toy company.
But the real and only star of TOYS is the visual effects, the sets, the production design, the computer animation, and the wonderful, wonderful toys. Everything that TOYS lacks in the way of story it possesses in abundance in visuals. It is this aspect of the film, a la Tim Burton, that gives it any chance at all of surviving as something like the masterpiece that Levinson clearly had in mind for himself. And there is something about TOYS that lingers in the mind. I woke up this morning thinking about it, having dreamed about it during the night.
However, I really cannot recommend TOYS to most of you. If you have a strong taste for Robin Williams, if you must see every movie that Barry Levinson makes, if your primary interest is in the visual effects, then you will go to TOYS. A lot of non-specialists, however, will stay away, unless they find themselves with no other movie and the possibility of a discount ticket.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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