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Napoleon Dynamite 2004 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Jared Hess
PG, 86 min. (thematic elements, language) |
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Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff
Producers: Jeremy Coon, Sean Covel, Chris Wyatt
Screenplay: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess
Cinematography: Munn Powell
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Released: 6.11.04 (Limited) |
Rating:
  (out of ) |
Napoleon Dynamite is a film that observes quirky characters which only have to be themselves to garner nonstop laughs.
It portrays ordinary activities with such pleasure that almost anyone can relate to the shallow but effectively authentic
shenanigans on display. Directed by Jared Hess, who co-wrote the screenplay with wife Jerusha, the film manages to
find an obscure balance between poking fun at and laughing with the eccentric characters. Indeed, some will find the
built-in humor borderline offensive; others will indulge in a gluttony of original and playful gags that rarely find the cinema.
The characters that inhabit Napoleon Dynamite look and feel as if stuck in a bizarre time warp, an unsettling
amalgamation of 70s, 80s, and 90s clothing and grooming habits. The success of the film is founded upon the believability
of the actors, who play the wonderfully stubborn characters with conviction and purpose. They convince the viewer that
towns such as Preston, Idaho do indeed exist.
Napoleon (Jon Heder in a zany performance) is the local high school nerd, a student that lives in a self-made fantasy world
of comic creations such as a "Liger" (part lion, part tiger) and who does his best to survive a daily onslaught of bullies and
rejections from girls that turn down his advances. He lives with his strange older brother, Kip (Aaron Ruell), who spends
all his time on the Internet chatting with LaFawnduh (Shondrella Avery), his online girlfriend who later comes to visit, and
his uncle, Rico (Jon Gries), who still practices throwing footballs in front of a video camera to admire his past glory.
Napoleon befriends a new student, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), who is from Mexico and finds a hard time adjusting to the
almost all-white community. The two become good friends and attempt to buck the system by promoting Pedro for
class president, which draws the ire of the popular students. Meanwhile, Napoleon is courting Deb (Tina Majorino),
a shy girl that sells homemade ribbons to fund her future college tuition.
The film is, at its bare bones center, a series of cobbled together skits that are punctuated by jokes that are consistently
funny. They usually involve Napoleon being picked on or mildly abused in some fashion, either by his classmates or
Rico, who transfers his own feelings of inadequacy onto Napoleon. Napoleon responds with his tried-and-true "Idiot!"
yell, or by staring into the distance and mumbling "Gosh." Much of the humor also falls upon Kip and Rico's antics, which range
from selling plastic bowls to buying time machine devices on the Internet (which results in self-electrocution). Pedro is
treated with a lighter touch, although his pat one-word answers and ambiguous demeanor draw some of the film's
bigger laughs (when asked about his long absence from school, he replies curtly "I got sick"). And his older brothers act as
bodyguards for students that pledge their support for his ongoing campaign.
If the film has a distinct weakness it's in the unpolished nature of the disjointed scenes that dominate the middle segment
of the picture - some seem out of place and not altogether coherent. But Hess has an eye for unforced humor, relying
on the terrific performances from his capable cast. Heder is one of the more intriguing characters in recent memory; his
flop of blonde hair and large glasses underscore his displaced sense of style. Gries and Ruell team to make an unlikely
comedic pair, and Ramirez hilariously portrays the fish-out-of-water perspective that coincides with Heder's own
isolated social life. It's difficult not to enjoy what Napoleon Dynamite has to offer, and its moments of inspired insanity
are well worth the price of admission. The film works because, despite the target of its humor, it does so with the
underlying intent on rooting for those that live on the peripheral of mainstream culture.
© 2004 Jonathan Cornwell
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 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
| Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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