If there’s one phrase I would use to describe The Great Buck Howard, it would be “low key.” This is a PG-rated, harmless and rather toothless look at a has-been whose days of fame have long since passed him by. Written and directed by Sean McGinly but driven by an appealing performance from John Malkovich, Buck Howard is watchable but neither particularly engaging nor emotionally effecting.
Malkovich plays Buck Howard, whose glory days (and 61, count it, 61 appearances on Late Night with Johnny Carson) are behind him. Howard is equal parts eccentric and manic, a drama queen with a tendency to go off on the poor unfortunate soul who happens to be his assistant at the time. Enter Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), fresh out of law school (which he quits, walking out in the middle of a class) and with aspirations to find his calling (could it be writing?).
Avoiding the watchful eye of his disapproving father (Tom Hanks), Troy somewhat unwittingly becomes Howard’s road manager. The two troll through a variety of small towns, where Buck performs cheesy but impressive shows. His signature move (and one he has never failed to accomplish) is finding a stack of money (his fee for the night) among the audience after he leaves the stage and they hide it somewhere in the theater. As Troy experiences Buck’s cavalcade of ever-changing moods (which Malkovich handles with relative ease), he grows to appreciate the mentalist (Buck sneers at the word “magician”) and his old-school oil-slick charm and gushing ways. But has Buck exiled himself to the land of no-name venues and small-town fans or does he have something far more impressive up his sleeve?
The Great Buck Howard is a simple story, told in massive amounts of narrations, of Troy's brief career as road manager under the tumultuous Buck Howard and the brief affair he carries on with a feisty publicist (Emily Blunt). Sean McGinly genuinely desires to explore the trappings of small-time fame, the way Buck gets by and how Troy grows to understand himself, if not necessarily the odd mentalist. Therein lies the problem that doesn’t so much derail the film but injects it with a great deal of predictability, making for a significantly less involving character piece.
Troy, as played by Colin Hanks, does not share his father’s leading-man charisma but is not sidelined as a supporting character in the film. This is Troy’s story through and through, despite the proceedings playing out as a Malkovich vehicle. Troy is a bland character and Hanks does play him with a boyishly dignified charm, while Emily Blunt develops an underwritten female role into a decent supporting character with limited screen time. However, it’s Malkovich who is the most interesting to watch, and the disappointment sets in when the inevitability of some kind of moral rears its head and Troy becomes a mouthpiece for whatever message McGinly is trying to get across.
The film becomes increasingly focused on what is possibly Buck’s magnum opus and a slim possibility that the act will revive the man’s career. What happens is fairly surprising and I won’t spoil it here but the film winds down in a hardly unexpected way, leaving very little to look forward to in the last half hour. The production values are fine but the thin script almost fools the viewer into thinking he’s watching a TV movie, if not for the cast. Overall, The Great Buck Howard is a recommendation for fans of any members of the cast but everyone else might be left wishing for some claws on this generally soft-and-cuddly dramedy.
DVD Bonus Features
The DVD offers up a variety of features, contrary to the low-key nature of the film. They include: a standard commentary with director Sean McGinly and Colin Hanks discussing the film; 3 minutes worth of deleted scenes that don’t add much to the film; around 10 minutes of extended scenes culled from Buck’s television appearances; 4 minutes of outtakes; a 10 minute "Behind the Scenes" featurette, a 5 minute HD Net commercial that highlights the film and acts as an ad; and finally, "The Amazing Kreskin", a 6-minute interview with the real-life mentalist under whom McGinly worked and was inspired to write Buck Howard.
"The Great Buck Howard" is on sale July 21, 2009 and is rated PG. Comedy, Drama. Written and directed by Sean McGinly. Starring Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, John Malkovich, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks.
