Please tell me I am not the only person in the world who has seen this movie. I am just throwing this movie out there because it was seriously one of the funniest movies I have seen John Turturro do in a long time and is a fantastically wacky attempt to remake the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera. If you haven’t see the latter, well you are missing out. Suffice to say that this movie is so utterly manic that you will be trying to keep up with the rapid fire jokes and wit.
John Turturro plays the “Groucho” character, a shifty lawyer (he’s even given a Grouchoesque three-barrelled moniker). Bob Nelson is the “Harpo” counterpart, a puckish handyman. And Mel Smith completes the trio as a Chico-like cabbie. All three conspire to save a failing ballet company on behalf of dowager Nancy Marchand, who does a film-length impersonation of Margaret Dumont. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Everything about this movie is so fast paced that you really wonder if the director and actors are even taking a momentary pause before the next joke comes out. This movie delivers lines like it is running a race, stumbling over punchline and running into the next, but what you miss isn’t much as there are plenty of laughs and one-liners to be had. You will overlook the hit and miss jokes as they rapidly come from the comedic talents of Bob Nelson, Mel Smith and John Turturro, who is just devilishly hilarious and manic in the all the right ways.
While the movie is supposed to be a take on the Marx Brothers’ it does border more on Three Stooges territory, but you can forgive the movie for creeping into that area because of how humorous it all is. A lot of the comedy comes from more prat gags and sight gags, playing up the ridiculous, cornball angle the movie has, but it all seems to work well within the movie and between the three bit actors. Turturro really steals the show though as his spastic ambulance chasing lawyer just exudes this schmaltzy confidence and his jokes seem on point and natural.
It’s just a well done, whirlwind comedy movie that might not nail down the Marx Brothers’ classic, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint as the jokes are rapid fire to the point that you will forget there are a couple of duds in there.
