John C. Reily plays the leading role Dewey Cox with so much seriousness and sincerity that at the final moments of the movie, we actually have developed sympathy for this fictional musical legend created by director Jake Kasdan and writer Judd Apatow. It runs parody of many musical legend life story based films but I have not seen half of it and still enjoyed it. There were of course some times when I felt lost but the performances of many with belief in their character as such of no existence other than to mock makes it a fun ride.It is definitely on the lines of “Scary Movie” or “Hot Shots” franchises and it works far better than those two. It has quirky dead pan comedy and the running gag throughout. The best of those are from the Dewey’s band drummer Sam (Tim Meadows) and it is utter pleasure to watch his first act of explaining the “ill effects” of marijuana. It felt initially though that the actors and director were having fun than the audiences. It later takes its comedy more seriously and notches it up to insanity which we know they mock every single musical legend epic made.
Discussing the story of this movie would steal half the fun and hence will not get into it much. That much is that it of course is a story of this fictional musical prodigy who plays guitar with no learning and at age 14 (played still by Reily) goes about making it big in the business. It mimics even some of the “The Doors” and some times it is comedic to see how estranged and insane those comedies are, the real life people did go through a phase something like that. It is surprising to see a serious pathetic situation of those drug addicted legends can be made into a spoof.
Without being much raunchy (but they manage to boost up the raunchiness in physical exposure), it while stutters at some places wherein we really do not know whether to take the things seriously because it appears for the director to make the scene so but at the same time funny to see the spoof of it and takes some time to adjust to that new tone of that comedy. I would not have expected Reily to get a solo front role in a comedy like this than a versatile drama film, but it is happy to see him finally get his recognition after much many years. After being a side kick for many times and boding very impressive character performances in movies like “Magnolia” and “Sydney”, Reily comes methodically original in this funny flick.
And to have music for a film like this would have been tough to compose. What they did is clever. The music is suited with much care for the era and style but they add the humour in the lyrics. Hence while it is believable to see this weird character playing music brilliantly is so dumb down in lyrics to provide the laughter the film needed. It shows how Kasdan has managed to work around the film as it stands for as a serious comedy.
It is great to see Judd Apatow aiding in setting up a style and standard for a genre in a comedy. For once many might realize that making a comedy is as tough or may be even tougher than making a drama and I hope some day Academy Awards or any film awards take care in recognizing these in a normal motion picture category. “Walk Hard” has been nominated for John C. Reily in the category of performance in a musical or comedy. We do not have a “Best Blockbuster Movie” or “Best Action Movie” because when it comes to award which even though I do not believe much in it, is some form of encouragement to the creative think tank of any film. Hence to completely classify a genre for not being dramatic or does not have any serious intent, seems partial and flawed. “Walk Hard” may not be as funny as “Hot Fuzz” or “Knocked Up” or “Super bad” but it is as best a spoof can get real and funny. And Reiley’s performance and the other actors with a screenplay short and simple to cover a fictional biopic and still address many parody features just tell how Jake Kasdan is able to design according to the writing.
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