Following Harrison Ford’s performance in Morning Glory, Simon laments the gap in Hollywood’s recent comedy output...
I've concluded, over the past few years, that it's not just the Academy Awards that tend to look down on a comedy a little. There's also a collection of talented comedic actors that appear to have given the genre a pretty wide berth. And that's been brought to the front of my mind by Morning Glory, which finally arrives in UK cinemas this week.
Back when I first watched Mike Nichols' Working Girl, it struck me that Ford is a gifted comedy actor. Not a comedian, note. Rather someone who can deliver a deadpan line with laser accuracy. We saw it when he played against Sean Connery in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, too. But we've barely seen it since, as Ford's choices have been away from the genre.
That was, until Morning Glory came along. On the promotional treadmill for the film, Ford admitted that he'd not done comedies for some time, because the genre itself had basically got a reputation for low-brow movies. Yet, Ford, for my money, is an actor with the clout to get a more grown-up comedy off the ground.
It got me thinking, too: it's not just Harrison Ford that's in this camp. There are lots of maturer comedy performers who haven't really done much in the genre for some time. Look at gifted comedy actors such as Steve Martin, Johnny Depp, Brendan Fraser and Will Smith. When was the last time they headlined a comedy film that wasn't skewed at a younger demographic?
Plus, Hugh Jackman surely has a good comedy in him, as do Ewan McGregor and Brad Pitt. They're just off the top of my head, and there must be plenty more relatively untapped comedy talents, put off by the fact that they have to deliver material that serves current trends alone.
To be fair, the likes of Robert Downey Jr and George Clooney aren't afraid of comedies, but it does seem that Hollywood has ring-fenced the genre somewhat. Thus, you can't make a comedy unless it's edgy/teen-skewed/gross-out/dark/nasty. And while this gives us gems such as World's Greatest Dad, there's still room, surely, in the market for a mainstream, grown-up comedy from time to time.
By that, I don't mean stunt casting-driven comedies, either. It used to be Arnold Schwarzenegger who did this, playing against type in the likes of Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and the male pregnancy documentary that was Junior.
Now? Sheesh, it's Robert De Niro doing it, just as badly, in the increasingly depressing Fockers movies. It's films like Little Fockers, which I maintain has all the qualities of a Police Academy sequel, that draw a stark divide between a one-joke, high-concept comedy, and a genuinely well-written comedy movie, with funny jokes in it.
It's perhaps with that in mind that I enjoyed Morning Glory a lot. For three reasons. Firstly, it was a broad, well-written comedy, that didn't rely on cheap gags for its laughs (and I'm no snob when it comes to cheap gags, I should point out). Secondly, it was actually funny, and the humour was in the writing as well as the performances. And thirdly, there was Harrison Ford, cast perfectly in a role that suits his comedy talents, and making me dearly wish he'd spent more time in the genre in the past 25 years.
It's been the kind of film that's been missing from Hollywood's comedy output in recent times, only occasionally appearing when a director such as James L Brooks, or someone of his ilk, fancies another stab at it.
I'm happy that the comedy genre has evolved, and I'm happy that there's a mix of comedy movies, the ilk of which we weren't getting a decade or two back. But that's no reason to abandon the mainstream, and to look down on the idea of a well-written comedy film that relies on funny lines as much as it does a particular concept.
That, coupled with actors such as Harrison Ford being given space to flesh out a comedy performance, would, for me, fill in the currently existing gap in Hollywood's output right now.
Morning Glory is released in UK cinemas today.
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