Napoleon Dynamite

My wife and I settled down to watch a movie last night. The film, "Napoleon Dynamite," came highly recommended from friends, and, hey, who hasn't seen a "Vote for Pedro" shirt? I was expecting some good laughs along the lines of "Caddyshack" or even "Blazing Saddles."

I was disappointed and, worse, I was disturbed by the film. I would have been better off not watching it.

The humor was based around the main character, Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon isn't funny -- he's a violent person with deep anger. He's also mentally handicapped, as is his new friend, Pedro. The film doesn't come out and say they are handicapped, but their behaviour is not "nerd-like," it's unbalanced.

For example, Napoleon gets angry at having to feed a llama. He keeps the animal tied up and throws the food so the animal can't get it. He decides he likes a girl in his Idaho high school and transfixes on her not in a healthy adolescence crush-like way, but in a mass-murderer sort of way. You know at the point Napoleon gets dumped when he's older, he's going to kill the object of his affection.

His life is surrounded by disfunctional people and his base anger boils over constantly. Again, it's not funny. It's uncomfortable, like watching an alcoholic self destruct.

Another example: Napoleon's friend, Pedro. He gets hot, so what does he do? He shaves his hair off. The circumstance is a set up for wearing a wig, but Pedro's response to a normal feeling (heat) is abnormal (cut off your hair).

Better off with better films

I won't belabor this with more discussion on such points as why the person Pedro runs against for student president should be disliked (I don't get it), or why most of the adults are mumbling idiots or how the movie clumsily sidestepped the issue of race with Pedro's pinata. Even the sight gag of shooting the cow and the steak dinners isn't done well.

I just think the movie is a disturbing shot at people with mental problems.

Compare it to, for example, "Better Off Dead." That comedy is set up on a morbid premise -- a teen gets dumped by his girlfriend and tries to kill himself. It's done, though, through hyperbole, not anger. And it's hilarious. Ricky, for example, is not a seriously unbalanced teen, he's played for the funny. He doesn't really threaten Monique in the unbalanced way Napoleon does the girl who took him to the dance.

Also look at "Sixteen Candles." That's loaded with heavy issues on relationships (parents to children, girlfriend to boyfriend, normal to geek) and the marriage of Sam's sister to that loser could have been loaded with dread and foreshadowing of abuse or infidelity, but it's handled light enough to make it funny and unreal. That's why I can laugh.

One redeeming quality: Napoleon's dance at the end is very well done.

Thought: Don't vote for Pedro.