WAITING FOR GUFFMAN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This mockumentary is of a small town
celebrating its 150th anniversary by putting on a
show in complete ignorance of the fact that nobody
in town has any talent. The film invites
comparison to the classic comedy SMILE, but that
film at the same time was far more serious and more
funny than this one. While this film has its
moments and the occasional funny bit, it never
really takes off as well as it might have. Rating:
+1 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 9 positive, 1 negative, 4 mixed
The town of Blaine, Missouri, was a mistake from the very beginning when pioneer Blaine Fabin overestimated the distance he had brought his party and assumed they had reached California. The residents of this town appear to have over-estimated their accomplishments ever since. The town, famous for its footstools has dubbed itself the Stool Capital of America. As the town approaches its sesquicentennial it is planning for a celebration large by Blaine standards, capped by a play telling of major events of the history of Blaine in a musical pageant called "Red, White, and Blaine." The production is to be put in the hands of the multi-untalented auteur Corky St. Claire (played by Christopher Guest who also co-authored, directed, and wrote some of the music for the film). The stars of the show are the town's myopic dentist (Eugene Levy), the town's two travel agents (Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara), the cute waitress from the Dairy Queen (Parker Posey), and the town hunk (Matt Keeslar). Corky is temperamental and has the same over-estimation of his own abilities that seems nearly universal in Blaine. The only person in town who seems to have any taste at all is the tightly wound music teacher who leads the band in too small a part for Bob Balaban. The film has repeated gags on the ego and vulgarity of the town residents, but for the most part the characters are more caricatures than believable people. WAITING FOR GUFFMAN might be more impressive if it was not so similar in approach to the wonderfully-observed SMILE, directed by Dennis Ritchie. In that film, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of a California town's hosting of a teenage beauty pageant, the characters seem considerably more real and are at the same time a lot more funny with often-caustic humor.
Christopher Guest has written the meatiest role for himself as the fey director and only at times has the talent to carry the film. Guest previously co-wrote THIS IS SPINAL TAP, but his most creative film was THE BIG PICTURE, a particularly insightful lampoon of the Hollywood film-making process. Perhaps this film's most memorable image is Guest's odd little improvisational stomach dance, done wearing his pants backwards. When the Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers proposed making the film AIRPLANE!, the studio wanted to cast the film with well-known comic actors in the major roles. The filmmakers very intelligently held out to get a set of actors not associated with comedy and the film was all the more funny as a result. Guest would have been well-advised to follow a similar policy since one has already seen over- the-top comedy performances by Levy, Willard, and O'Hara. Their characters needed an air of authenticity and credibility that these actors simply lack.
WAITING FOR GUFFMAN is certainly worth a viewing for the parts that do work, but afterwards, for a real treat, rent SMILE and see what can really be done with a lampoon of a small town and its icons. In this film there certainly are at least three good laughs and no slow portions, so WAITING FOR GUFFMAN does work as a comedy but it never works well. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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