|
what
planet are you from? |
director
Mike Nichols
screenwriters
Garry Shandling
Michael Leeson
Ed Solomon
Peter Tolan
story by
Garry Shandling
Michael Leeson
producers
Neil A. Machlis
Mike Nichols
Garry Shandling
cinematographer
Michael Ballhaus
music
Carter Burwell
editor
Richard Marks
cast
Garry Shandling (Harold Anderson)
Annette Bening (Susan Anderson)
John Goodman (Roland Jones)
Greg Kinnear (Perry Gordon)
Ben Kingsley (Graydon)
Judy Greer (Rebecca)
Danny Zorn (Randy)
Linda Fiorentino (Helen Gordon)
Caroline Aaron (Nadine)
Nora Dunn (Madeline)
Camryn Manheim (Alison)
Ann Cusack (Liz)
Jane Lynch (Doreen)
Stacey Travis (Woman)
Janeane Garofalo (Nervous Woman)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 104m
u.s.
release: 3/3/00
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
Official website
other mike
nichols films
reviewed on this website:
- closer
- primary
colors
- wolf
|
Is
there an unlikelier movie star than Garry Shandling? His wincing,
sour-faced style worked in small doses on TV -- especially on
The Larry Sanders Show, where he was meant to be
dislikable and self-absorbed. In What Planet Are You From?,
playing an alien from an all-male race sent to Earth to impregnate
a woman (are you laughing yet?), Shandling sends out creepy vibes
even when he's supposed to be developing human feelings. He's
credible in his early scenes, when he's hitting on every woman
he sees, but this isn't the kind of rambunctious sex comedy that
finds humor in horny desperation. No, the alien must be redeemed
by love.
Assuming the identity of Harold Anderson, a hotshot banker, the
alien settles down in Arizona and begins his quest. A slimy coworker
(Greg Kinnear) brings Harold to an AA meeting -- a good place
to meet fragile babes, says Kinnear -- and Harold meets Susan
(Annette Bening), who's trying to get her life back together.
He wants a baby pronto; conveniently, so does she. After two
days, they get married and have nonstop, 21-hour honeymoon sex,
heightened by Harold's technologically advanced penis. Did I
mention his penis hums when he's aroused? It's supposedly incredibly
funny. The filmmakers apparently thought so, since the gag is
repeated again and again, and yet, mysteriously, does not become
one bit funnier.
Noticing the participation of Shandling, whose Larry Sanders
was spiked with sharp insider wit, and director Mike Nichols,
who had an intelligent triumph just two years ago with Primary
Colors, you might expect What Planet Are You From?
to be a frisky sexual satire freshened with blasts of candor.
But the film's targets are completely banal. Women are demanding
and over-emotional; men will never figure them out. Men are closed-off
and obsessed with the TV remote when they're not horny; women
will never figure them out. The movie offers not one shred of
insight, comic or otherwise, into the eternal conflict between
the sexes. It took Shandling and three other guys to write a
script this loaded with sitcom clichés.
To pad things out, the writers introduce an airline investigator
(John Goodman) who's hot on Harold's trail -- for reasons unexplained,
Harold uses airplane lavatories as meeting points when conferring
with his alien boss (Ben Kingsley, looking vaguely disgusted).
Goodman's impatient body language while waiting for an elderly
lady to give him some urgently needed info provided my sole,
lonely laugh in the entire 105 minutes. But essentially he's
thrown away here, and the many interesting women onscreen (Bening,
Nora Dunn, Camryn Manheim, Caroline Aaron, Janeane Garofalo,
Stacey Travis, and particularly poor Linda Fiorentino, failing
to hide her contempt for the script) are likewise wasted.
About halfway through, I asked myself why What Planet Are
You From? is set in Arizona, of all places. Partly, I suppose,
it's because of its proximity to Roswell, the alien capital of
the world. But an ugly suspicion presents itself: can it be that
Shandling, Nichols, and their urbane cowriters feel that everyone
in Arizona (which, after all, is not New York) is just too stupid
to notice Harold's alien-ness? What planet are these guys
from? Mike Nichols seems too smart to resort to humming-penis
gags and tired visual innuendo involving gushing fountains during
the honeymoon marathon. Maybe aliens stole his brain? Unless
they've stolen yours, you're likely to feel as insulted and demoralized
by the movie as I did. |
