Friday, June 12, 2009
Movie review: Imagine That
It's a shame that Imagine That is such a disappointing movie, because it showcases some really bright actors who are clearly performing at the top of their game - not the least of whom is Eddie Murphy.
But the material they're working with (script by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson; direction by Karey Kirkpatrick) is so uninspired - and occasionally downright wrong-headed - that the players' best efforts are overshadowed by its deficiencies.
Murphy is engaging and pleasantly unaffected as Evan, a go-get-'em associate in a high-powered Denver investment firm. Evan's chief rival at the firm is a Native American upstart named Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church, sporting shoulder-length chestnut hair and a nauseating repertoire of woodsy, cornpone, great outdoors homilies). It's come down to a choice between Evan and Whitefeather for a chance to take the reins of the company after veteran headman Tom Stevens (Ronny Cox) retires.
Evan's not faring too well as of late, because his client presentations - while well-researched and insightful - lack the flash and style of those given by Whitefeather, who whips his audience into a kind of warpath drumbeat frenzy.
Acting as a complicating factor is Evan's daughter, Olivia (sparkling and talented film newcomer Yara Shahidi). To Evan, that's really all she is: a complication, worthy of little of his attention and no affection whatsoever on the occasions when he's saddled with her under the joint custody arrangement worked out with his estranged wife, Trish (the ravishing Nicole Ari Parker). It's only after he discovers that she's picking winning stocks that he takes an interest in her. (Yep, pretty deplorable.)
Well, it's not exactly Olivia who's picking the winning investments (and nay-saying the losers) - it's the "imaginary" entities she converses with while hiding out beneath her "goo-gaa" (i.e., little blue blankie). These fairy tale princesses are somehow clued in to magnesium futures in Bolivia and clandestine corporate shenanigans about to be made public in Chicago, and through their counsel Evan is able to rebuild his flagging status at the firm. Collaterally, he learns how to have fun with his daughter - until it's no longer convenient.
It's depressing to watch Evan and Trish arguing about who will be responsible for (read: "get saddled with") Olivia for the remainder of the day - particularly when they are doing so right in front of her on the steps of the private academy where she goes to school. Neither one of them seems to realize that she's sitting there listening. Olivia's being treated as a bargaining chip rather than a human being. (Were this a documentary, she would grow up clinically depressed or socially dysfunctional, and would spend the next several hours weeping beneath her blankie; since it's a fictional narrative, she takes it all in stride, and even philosophizes via narrative monologue.)
Evan's true colors (dark green, according to this color wheel) come out when he needs Olivia's "princesses" to run a portfolio for him, and she's inconveniently in the custody of her mother. He abandons all dignity and even resorts to breaking and entering in order to retrieve the "goo-gaa," and to heck with what his daughter (and ex-wife, and friends, and patrons at the kiddie party place) think about it. Or him.
In a sudden and improbable fit of unselfishness, Evan makes a tough decision near the end of the film that puts his family before his career - but ends up not having to suffer the damaging consequences. Guess that officially makes Imagine That a fairy tale.
Which is a better descriptor for the movie than "comedy," because in truth there aren't a lot of laughs to be had here. At least the kid actors are allowed to be precious, charming and genuine.
As for the adults: the best we can do is grin and bear it.
