A
lot about Kevin Smith has rubbed people the wrong way over the years, from his
self-aggrandizing efforts to build his "View Askewniverse" to his vision of a
world where regardless of gender, race, religion, or social status, everyone's
adept at raunchy sex talk. Mainly, Smith's greatest sin has been writing and
directing a series of indifferently shot, choppily edited comedies in which all
the dialogue—funny though it often is—sounds like one long
monologue split between an assortment of flat, cartoony characters.
Nevertheless, Smith is clearly a bright guy with a good sense of
humor—even about his own failings—so it's nice to be able to break
from the ritual of Smith-bashing for a change and say that his latest movie, Zack
And Miri Make A Porno, is honestly
enjoyable.
It helps that Smith is working with a cast perfectly suited
to his style. In Zack And Miri, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks play two longtime friends
whose dead-end jobs and buy-now-pay-later approach to life has left them on the
verge of losing their apartment. So in a choice that smartly—and kind of
sweetly—mimics Smith's own rags-to-riches story, they decide to make a
movie. Only instead of making a movie where people only talk about sex, it's one where they
actually have
sex. And the stars? Rogen and Banks, who discover as their big love scene
approaches that they may be forcing themselves into a relationship level-jump
that they both secretly desire. Zack And Miri features simple-but-effective
staging, well-modulated performances, and a reasonably well-crafted narrative,
with an outlook on adult romance that clearly comes from a personal place.
Not that Smith has completely matured. The film is clumsily unfunny at
times—particularly when Smith makes tone-deaf efforts at gay- and
black-themed comedy—and it's occasionally gross just for the sake of
being gross. But while its romantic-comedy elements are by-the-numbers, the romance is touching, and the sequence where
the two leads shoot their big sex scene takes some touching turns as it shifts from
hilarious to something richer. Most importantly, Smith ties the love story to
the idea that his leads pull out of their life slump by embracing their
creative, industrious sides. After all his campus lectures and message-board
rants, Smith seems to be re-introducing himself in Zack And Miri as a humble, hard-working
guy—and one far easier to like.