'Walk Hard' plays the rock biopic for laughs -- detox and all
Although it tells the tale of a fictional singing star, "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" doesn't just lampoon movie biographies of iconic musicians. It punctures the pretensions of all cinematic attempts to boil down a famous person's life.
As written by Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up," "The 40 Year-Old Virgin") and director Jake Kasdan (who, like Apatow, worked on the cult TV classic "Freaks & Geeks"), "Walk Hard" never takes itself too seriously. It knows it's a farce, and it thankfully undermines both the gaudy sentiment and predictable "big moments" of such musical biopics as "Walk the Line" and "Ray."
Chicagoan John C. Reilly gives Cox a perfectly dazed fervor as an earnest, if not incredibly bright, young man. His prodigious musical ability magically appears when he's a child, just after he accidentally kills his brother during a machete fight. Dad never forgives him, and whenever Dewey's near, he repeats: "The wrong kid died!"
Eternally seeking his dad's approval, Dewey rises to fame exactly as you'd expect. He leaves home as a teenager with his perpetually pregnant wife, Edith (Kristen Wiig of "Saturday Night Live"). He wins over a tough crowd in an all-black nightclub. He hooks up with a band, which includes drummer and pal Sam (Tim Meadows). He convinces an annoyed recording engineer to give him a second chance, and his resulting single drives the kids wild.
We follow Cox's ups and downs over the next several decades as he takes cracks at every musical trend. This allows Reilly (doing his own singing) to send up eras including classic country, rock 'n' roll, proto-punk, hippie folk, art rock, sensitive singer-songwriters and disco.
Things really get crazy for Dewey once Jenna Fischer of TV's "The Office" arrives as his backup singer, Darlene. Although their sexual chemistry is off the charts, she's naturally a traditional Southern girl. The vocalists engage in a tumultuous lifelong relationship which is often threatened by Dewey's wild lifestyle.
Fischer's a masterful partner for Reilly's deadpan delivery, and both radiate an "aw-shucks" attitude that mixes well with the satirical jabs and crude gags.
Too many "outrageous" comedies remain funny for about an hour, until the filmmakers decide to get serious, or worse, sappy. Here, Kasdan undercuts the inevitable emotional epiphanies by having characters telegraph them, or by otherwise pointing out how uniform the lives of so many great artists tend to appear on film.
Dewey stumbles into a bathroom where Sam is smoking marijuana with some groupies, leading to a great exchange wherein Sam tries to convince Dewey to stay away but grudgingly shoots down every dope myth the singer brings up. The setup becomes a running joke as Cox undergoes the standard rock star downward spiral, and the film even succeeds at playing the inevitable drug withdrawal scene for laughs.
While Reilly and Fischer prove themselves to be highly watchable leads, the film is packed with cameos by real music folks including Eddie Vedder, Jack White and Ghostface Killah. A quartet of uncredited Apatow pals pops up as the fractious (and self-absorbed) Beatles. Keep an eye out for Fischer's "Office" mates Ed Helms and Craig Robinson in bit parts.
Stunt casting, goofy songs, a psychedelic animated sequence … such gimmickry gives "Walk Hard" a sheen of disposability, which actually works in its favor. If it allowed itself any serious gravity, it wouldn't be as funny as it is.
"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"
3½ stars
out of four
Opens today
John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox
Jenna Fischer as Darlene Madison
Raymond J. Barry as Pa Cox
Kristen Wiig as Edith
Tim Meadows as Sam
Written by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan. Produced by Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan and Clayton Townsend. Directed by Jake Kasdan. A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R (sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language). Running time: 96 minutes.