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The Baxter (2005) Review
Once in a while I'll see a movie with minimal expectations, and end up being utterly delighted. This is one of those movies. The film is the feature film directorial debut of Michael Showalter, who has previously popped up a number of places on TV and film such as THE DAILY SHOW and STELLA SHORTS. Here is excels on in all three creative tasks. I firmly believe that this is one of those "small" comedies that will build a significant fan base over the course of time. It is unorthodox in that the lead romantic character truly is not especially attractive or appealing. We've all seen comedies in which the leading man was supposed to be unattractive, but in fact was a pretty nice looking guy pretending to be unattractive. Not here: Michael Showalter might be an extraordinarily nice guy, but here he simply is not hot. He isn't merely unattractive; he has terribly posture, moves awkwardly, and dresses horribly. Much of this is achieved by make up, wardrobe, or acting, but the point is that when we look at him we really do see an unattractive guy, and this is crucial to the film's success.See, Elliot Sherman, Showalter's character, is a Baxter. As the movie explains at the beginning, a Baxter is the guy in romantic comedies who is always left by the girl at the altar when she is reunited with her true love. Ralph Bellamy in HIS GIRL FRIDAY is a Baxter. Bill Pullman in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is a Baxter. In other words, they are always the guy you know the girl won't end up with. In THE BAXTER, Elliot meets the very pretty Caroline Swann, whom he meets through his quintessentially Baxter job of accountant. Inexplicably, they hit it off, get engaged, and plan their marriage. Inevitably, Caroline's high school sweetheart reenters the picture and we all wonder if this signals the end of their engagement and the reassertion of Elliot's Baxter-hood. Meanwhile, at the height of his anxiety over the reappearance of the old boyfriend, Elliot meets Cecil, an unpolished but extremely cute temp he met the same day he met Caroline. Of course, as he talks with her and tells Cecil all about his troubled relationship, everyone in the house desires him to get together with Cecil rather than Caroline. Michelle Williams, who is best known for her role in DAWSON'S CREEK, does a great job of looking as mousy and unattractive as it is possible for her to look, though her irrepressibly cute face and great smile is impossible to hide. With her dark and short, she bears a striking resemblance to Janeane Garafalo (which I definitely mean as a compliment-Janeane has gotten a lot of mileage out of being unglamorous, but she really does have one of the great smiles on the planet).
There is a great supporting cast of mainly unknown performers. Most will know Paul Rudd from films like CLUELESS and his other work, but many will be unfamiliar to most. Michael Ian Black was funny as Elliot's close friend who was a bit clueless in his own way, but the best supporting job by far was by the dwarf actor Peter Dinklage, who was great in THE STATION AGENT. Most performances by dwarfs are funny primarily being performed by a dwarf (though Tony Cox is a notable exception). Dinklage, by contrast, is quite funny here, as much by his subtle gestures. He had some great visual reactions to things that happened in his scenes, and the way he walked back and forth in front of Elliot's building was very funny. Casting dwarf actors is always difficult, but I hope he finds more roles in the future. I also like the way that he plays his roles with dignity. You never get the sense with him that anyone is making fun of him.
I saw this at a preview in Chicago, and the audience laughed hard all the way through the film. I think most film goers will do so. I was absolutely stunned when I saw that Roger Ebert gave the film two stars. More and more over the years I've come to distrust his assessments of movies. He not only underrates good movies; he gives absurdly good ratings to awful movies. Remember his 3-star rating of GARFIELD? I'm not sure how to account for the growing quirkiness of his ratings. I've wondered about the conditions he sees films. He may receive screeners and watch movies primarily on DVD. If that is the case, he could have seen this without an audience. In his review he compares THE BAXTER poorly to A 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN, which I think is the weaker of the two films by a considerable margin. And the audience laughed much harder at THE BAXTER. So, I strongly urge anyone wanting to see a good comedy to ignore Ebert and check this out. I promise that very few people are going to be disappointed.
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