Review: “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, directed by Jake Kasdan, USA, 2007. Review by Julian on 1/3/08.

I actually had high hopes for Walk Hard, and I can sum up why in two words: Judd Apatow.  Rising to critical attention with the fabulous Freaks and Geeks and the lesser but still hilarious Undeclared, writer/producer/director Apatow has since seen his name stamped on some of the warmest and funniest comedies of the decade.  Cautiously navigating the space between the gross-out and romantic comedy, Apatow has regularly cooked up a potent mixture of juvenile humor and genuine heart.

 With Superbad and Knocked Up, Apatow’s 2007 productions offered, respectively, an offbeat ode to homoerotic friendship and a reminder that with great sex comes great responsibility. Both succeeded by taking the time to establish sympathetic characters before unleashing them on a crude and unpredictable world.

 Where Apatow’s best succeeds, Walk Hard sadly fails. Rushed, ugly, and bizarrely unfunny, this meager attempt at satire stars John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, a lamebrained rock star who’s one part Johnny Cash, one part Ray Charles, and one part whatever miscellaneous asshole is appropriate for the given punchline. The film follows Cox throughout his musical career, tracing his ascension to stardom, battle with the usual cadre of addictions, and attempts to find happiness by conquering the demons of his past.

 The overall package isn’t too bad. In his first major starring role, Reilly plays each joke to the hilt, throwing his body into every swagger, curling his lip at every snide remark, and generally making the most of things whenever possible. Likewise, a supporting cast spilling over with recognizable comedic talent does its honest best to keep things afloat. The songs too are solid, with Reilly doing a far better job of hitting those difficult notes than Joaquin Phoenix ever did in the earnest Walk the Line. 

No, the failure here is quite clearly with the writing, which lacks polish, heart, and, most distressingly for a comedy, humor. Knowing that co-writers Apatow and Jake Kasdan (who also directs) have talent, I have no choice but to label this effort as lazy.

 Apatow and Kasdan construct the film as a satire, wrapping set pieces and narrative events around Cox’s chance encounters with a host of real-life musical legends like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and The Beatles. They even recruit notable names like Jack Black, Justin Long, and Jack White (who, as Presley, steals not just his scene but the whole film) to play the parts. But instead of exploiting these meetings for their full satiric potential, the writers settle for Saturday Night Live-style non-jokes in which the characters simply state who they are over and over again. This is not satire.  It’s not even parody.  It’s just lazy writing.

 (For the blissfully unaware, SNL has been sucking quite enthusiastically for some time now. A staple of the insipid writing featured on the show has been talk show parodies hosted by strange personalities, real or imagined. Instead of creating unique characters, laying down any form of narrative, or even building from set-up to punchline, these sketches involve hosts repeatedly reminding the audience of who they are. On “The Brian Fellows Show”, Tracy Morgan as Brian Fellows constantly says, “I’m Brian Fellows.”  On “The Barry Gibb Talk Show,” more than half of any given sketch is devoted to a theme song with the lyrics. “Talkin’ It Up/On the Barry Gibb Talk Show”.  And so on and so on, ad nauseum.)

Aside from meager satire, Walk Hard features a stilted and narrow range of cruel jokes that, instead of evolving over time or recurring in different varieties, are simply repeated over and over again. A joke about Cox’s brother being cut in half seems like an odd misstep the first time it shows up. By the eighth time, it feels like deliberate punishment.

 Again, Walk Hard  parallels the stagnant SNL in that it’s so bad at times that it almost seems to be daring you not to laugh. “Sure, this sucks,” the film says. “But you’ve already invested so much time. You might as well try to like it!”

If people were starved for quality comedy, this just might work. And in fact, there are moments in Walk Hard when a ray of comedic light beats back the shadows of the preceding minutes. But in a world where Apatow’s own films have led audiences to expect genuine wit and characterization from their comedies, crass and lazy writing of this sort just won’t cut it.

 Rating: 2 screens (out of 5)