Jack the Bear

While all the other bloggers continue to heal America by blogging about the Virginia Tech massacre, what's Misanthropy Central covering today?

JACK THE BEAR!

Stay with me here, this is a strange movie -- one that most people have forgotten about if they even bothered to recognize it when it was out.

What was "Jack the Bear"? A dramedy? You won't find much -edy in it. On the easiest level, it's a coming-of-age story. Set in the early 70s. Danny DeVito is a late night TV horror show host. A widower raising two boys in a new town. The older boy, Jack, serves as the movie's protagonist. We go with him to his first day at a new school. We watch him squirm through his first crush/girlfriend (played by Reese Witherspoon, who doesn't look like she's aged in over 15 years). The film's got a curiously gentle quality about it...

Up through its midpoint...

Thereabouts, it takes a turn. And starts to flirt with the conventions of a horror movie.

Yes, the creepy man in town, played convincingly by Gary Sinise. The neighborhood kids think he's a monster and pin horrific backstories on him. We assume he's just misunderstood. And the film punishes us for that expectation.

The film was released in 1993 -- which doesn't seem like a long time ago, but in Internet years it represents the Dark Ages. Therefore, it's hard finding much information about the movie, especially because it was easily dismissed by both critics and audiences. Amazon.com informs us that it "sat on the shelf for a couple of years while (director Marshall) Herskovitz reworked it...", and I do recall this. It was one of those movies.

But the screenplay was by Steve Zaillian (adapted from the book by Dan McCall). Directed by one of the producers of "My So-Called Life" (who directed the Guns & Gossip episode). The cast featured Danny DeVito, Gary Sinise, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andrea Marcovicci as the dead wife (she also played a character that flirted with Louie De Palma on TAXI) and who could EVER forget Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.??...?

Okay, I remember watching it in an empty theater back in the day, and I recently caught it on HD cable. It is a strange movie. It does harbor a To Kill A Mockingbird feel (thanks for the insight, EW), and no it may not be entirely successful. The first half is sort of sweet and melancholy. The second half gets strange and offers some really strange kid-performances. There are many aspects that are depressing as all get out.

But I kinda like its strangeness. I like that it tries to become a thriller and sort of fumbles. It's going to end up one of those movies that just slips through the cracks of time, which is a shame. People get sooo hung up on seeing "good movies". Movies that are reviewed well, movies that are highly recommended by friends...

Well, how about an OKAY movie tonight? How about...

... JACK THE BEAR!!!

((( This Just In )))
They just cast Robert Smith to play the JOKER in the next Batman! Cure fans, your time has come...