Museum Entertains Everyone but Grumps
By Orson Scott Card
Editor’s note: This review first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission.
The promos for Night at the Museum looked like a lot of fun. For about, say, five minutes. Then the novelty of seeing all the cool stuff in the museum come to life would wear off, and we’d be sitting there for another ninety minutes or so, wishing we were home watching C-SPAN2.
Still … there’d be those five minutes.
So off we went on Monday night to see this Ben Stiller comedy, and discovered that it’s entertaining for the whole duration. In fact, not just kids but grownups laughed out loud. OK, I’ll be specific: I laughed out loud, and more than once.
The script, by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (Herbie: Fully Loaded; Taxi), has holes that you could drive a tyrannosaur through. For instance, some of the damage – like a smashed information desk in the middle of the lobby – seems to be magically restored by morning, while other damage – like a little fire-extinguisher foam on some neanderthals – remains in full view.
But if your goal is to experience an evening of perfect logic, I suggest you play chess against a computer and leave the movies to people with more, shall we say, relaxed standards.
Even if the script doesn’t care all that much about logic and reality, the actors do. Ben Stiller’s comic gifts include his utter sincerity in the midst of absurdity, and that is the main reason this movie works. In the midst of chaos, we have someone real to hold on to. He makes us care about something completely absurd.
Robin Williams takes his cue from Stiller and gives a restrained, charming performance. Dick Van Dyke is in his Bert the Chimneysweep mode, even when he does naughty things. Owen Wilson is absolutely wonderful as Jedadiah the cowboy, and his pairing with Steve Coogan as the Roman officer is inspired. If Ricky Gervais tries way too hard in his first scene, he quickly settles down into his ordinary comic mode (repulsiveness so complete it makes you want to change species).
And if you’re as old as I am, there’s a special delight in seeing Mickey Rooney not only on the screen, but proving that he still has the comic gifts that made him America’s top box office star back in his youth.
So … will this movie change the world? Hardly. Will you have fun watching it? Unless you’re a complete grump, yes.
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