Be Kind Rewind is too funny, too sweet

By Joe Pelone
Collegian Editor
February 27, 2008

“Whimsical” is a word that gets tossed at director Michel Gondry’s work a lot, and his latest film, Be Kind Rewind, earns the same description. Loaded with much of the imagery common to his previous movies and music videos, the film is a delightful tribute to independent cinema and storytelling.

Danny Glover plays Mr. Fletcher, the owner of a VHS rental store and a memorial to piano player Fats Waller. He employs Mike (Mos Def) to help run the place and keep Jerry (Jack Black) out of the joint while he searches for means to improve business. As it turns out, the building is on the verge of being condemned. It’s going to take a lot of money to get the place up to code, something made even more difficult when Jerry becomes magnetized (Yeah, I don’t know) and erases all of the store’s tapes.

In a desperate bid to keep the store afloat without resorting to, say, tracking down VHS movies on eBay, Mike opts to film the store’s films himself. “I’m Bill Murray. You’re everyone else,” he tells Jerry before recreating Ghostbusters. From there, the duo picks up more members and goes on to adapt numerous flicks in their own endearingly low budget vision, calling these new versions “Sweded.”

I’ve pretty much just summed up the trailer, for which I apologize, but that’s all the plot you need to know going into Be Kind Rewind. The other thing you need to know about Be Kind Rewind is this: It is a cloyingly sweet film about the love of storytelling.

Previous Gondry films The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep mixed darker elements into their fantasy, but not this new release. Be Kind Rewind is a “feel-good” film throughout, and is only as warm as you will allow it to be. That is to say, the movie has a lot of leaps of faith—especially the over-the-top happy ending. But if you allow yourself to get taken in by the film, a world of magic opens up.

Be Kind Rewind boasts some great performances—Glover, Def and Black are all awesome and loveable. Supporting actress Melonie Diaz and even Sigourney Weaver, in a cameo, serve the film well. The only weak point is Mia Farrow as Miss Falewicz, the old woman who constantly yearns for simplicity and soul in stories. She’s the gal saying, “To movies with heart” in the trailer, and the line is just as gratingly cute in ads as it is in context. Falewicz is the ultimate test of how much saccharine you can handle in your movies, because her kindly old woman shtick is quite wearisome. I feel like a jerk for harshing on a nice gal, but she’s quite the nerve-smacker.

The best gosh dang part of the whole movie, of course, is the remakes. Filmed in Gondry’s warped D.I.Y. style, rehashes of Rush Hour 2, King Kong and Men in Black all come out hilariously. At one point, there’s a single shot run-through of several productions at once, and the highly technical/low budget blend is staggering. While the film never outdoes its Ghostbusters interpretation—dig how accurate the library and Stay Puft Marshmallow scenes are—each recreation, or “Sweded” version, is a good time.

The effects do rule quite thoroughly. Recreating proton pack streams with tinsel and using green trash bags for Slimer is hilarious and pretty smart to boot. Same goes for using Playskool maps to make it look like Black and Def are hanging from the top of a building. The best effect is perhaps using pizza pies for brain matter. Yum.

Thus far in his career, Gondry’s strongest film he has written and directed is Be Kind Rewind. The plot isn’t the deepest or twistiest ever, but the strength of the performances and swedings more than compensate. In the hands of another director and cast, the story could easily become annoying, but Gondry and his players live up the “stories with heart” tagline. Fun and, yes, whimsical, Be Kind Rewind honors the power of imagination.

pelonej1@lasalle.edu