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Review #15 of 365
Film: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World [PG-13] 98 minutes
WIP: $4
When 1st Seen: 25 January 2006
Where Viewed: Loews Cineplex Meridian, Seattle, WA
Time: 2:50 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Tomadir E. of London, England, UK
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Possessing one of the lengthiest titles for a film in recent memory, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, is a film in a somewhat new genre of films that utilizes the look and feel of a documentary to add an air of authenticity to the production. In this case, Albert Brooks (writer, director, and actor for the film) plays himself as a semi out-of-work actor/comedian who gets offered the ‘brilliant opportunity’ to serve his country by participating in a program that will take him to India and Pakistan for a month to understand what makes Muslims laugh. The government suspects that the key to better international relations will be found in an understanding of what tickles the funny bones of other peoples of the world. The keys will be that he is to produce a 500-page report for the government commission on a shoestring budget and limited support with the reward being his receipt of the Medal of Freedom. In parts, the film is hilarious, warm, charming, and respectful. And then, despite what seem genuine efforts on the part of Mr. Brooks and crew to simultaneously satirize US government studies and the current political climate while bridging the gaps between the cultures on opposite sides of the globe, somewhere there is a miscue and satire becomes silly and the continual references to the challenge of producing a 500-page report grows tiresome. Moreover, the film falls back on way too many stereotypes, in some cases the very ones it seems to profess to disdain. For example, the very premise outlined in the film’s title, to find comedy in the Muslim world and then focus entirely on India and Pakistan when Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation and implying that some part of the world is particularly Muslim when there are Muslim people all over the world, is really short-sighted. The film makes reference to the fact that India is predominantly Hindu with a population of over a billion people and 100 million Muslims and how that should be enough people for Mr. Brooks to use for his study. In fact, throughout the study, he and his colleagues make no attempt to ascertain the religion of the ‘randomly selected’ people he chooses to ask the inane question, “What makes you laugh?”. For he knew, he could have asked strictly Hindu people or agnostic people. I found this disappointing to say the least. In many ways, the film conceptually fell in to the same trap that many citizens of the USA fall into because our media and our education does not always make a clear distinction between Middle Easterners and Muslims. Of course, there are Canadian Muslims, British Muslims, USA Muslims, German Muslims, Chinese Muslims, and so on. So, to identify this region as the “Muslim world” is simply short-sighted and demonstrates a lack of care with precision that ultimately feeds into stereotypes and misinformation the film supposedly seems to want to diminish rather than fuel.
Technically, it seemed that things were off to a good start with Mr. Brooks so eager to take on the ‘oddball’ government assignment, and then they go down hill swiftly after he arrives ‘broken and battered’ from having to fly coach class from LA to India—an experience he refers to as “taking Greyhound”—I can only presume this is in reference to his obviously pejorative feelings toward the experience of traveling by Greyhound Bus. Ultimately, his inability to connect with the ‘common’ man or get over his spoiled lifestyle comes through loudly and clearly. Unfortunately, if an actor is playing himself, one can only wonder if the real Albert Brooks would act this way, or if he is playing a character of himself. If the former is true, then he comes across at times as a very selfish, sometimes childish, overly self-important nit wit, and if the latter is true, one can only wonder why he would make his character behave this way—as the writer/director he should have had a huge say in the matter—when it (a) diminishes himself as a person of integrity, and (b) makes it increasingly hard to regard him as a credible source of comedy and history. I really like Albert Brooks. I think he had good intentions when he decided to make this film. Unfortunately, either the advice he got or the decisions he made himself to rely on so many stereotypes and presumptions ultimately sunk this film for me deeming it impossible for me to recommend. In the end, I learned nothing about the “Muslim World” and nothing about real Muslim people, nothing about real Indian or real Pakistani people, nothing about their governments (at least I am assuming that his real incursion into India to make this film did not actually yield to an escalation of security forces along the Indian-Pakistani borders as he depicts and, in fact, the caricatures of the government officials he utilized for each of the governments was nearly shameless), and this was incredibly disappointing. The ending and the outcome of the ‘project’ is equally disappointing. So, again, other than some charming moments when Albert Brooks coaches his young, Indian assistant, played by Sheetal Sheth—an American actress born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey--through some relationship issues with her boyfriend and her incredible enthusiasm for her work and the project in general, there is little else to enjoy about this film. I dearly hope that people will not see this movie and come away feeling like what they saw was in any way real. While it may feel at times like a documentary because that really is Albert Brooks playing Albert Brooks, this movie is not a documentary.
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Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World [DVD](2005) DVD
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