In the Post-“Louie” era of TV and film, people have become fascinated with the psychology of The Comedian. And it’s hardly Earth shattering to suggest that these people who make us laugh are not one-dimensional clowns but artists with personal struggles and complexities.
Taylor Hackford’s film “The Comedian” has been an idea percolating with Robert De Niro as long as eight years ago, but eight years later it now has the familiar premise of “Bojack Horseman,” barely the heart of even a mediocre “Louie” copycat and an antiquated view of Internet comedy and stardom.
De Niro plays not Rupert Pupkin but Jackie Burke, a veteran insult comic whose claim to fame was a cheesy sitcom from decades earlier. At a comedy club in the middle of nowhere his audience expects him to recite his show’s catch phrases, but his bitter stage presence coupled with self-deprecating conversations with himself during his act don’t gel with the audience. He punches out an obnoxious heckler filming him and goes viral. Upon serving his community service, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann) and tries to reconcile his life.
There might be a movie here if Burke had to confront the consequences of his material, but Hackford resorts to merely showing a few squirming faces whenever Burke takes the stage. He says something shocking, and everyone tries to hate him, but before his five minute set is up, he’s pretty fantastic after all. It sounds like a fantasy put that way, with seemingly no knowledge for how an insult comic especially has to walk a delicate line to be considered funny and offensive but not harming anyone, or how people on the Internet will misconstrue just about anything.
And yet those on stage moments are about all “The Comedian” has going for it. Comedy Central Roast veteran Jeff Ross co-wrote the screenplay, and a number of young comics consulted and touched up Burke’s material. It’s to the point that De Niro simply needed to show up to deliver, and he has the poise and body language of a guy who’s been hitting the night clubs for forever.
Except you wish that some of the film’s drama would happen off stage, or in a moment where Jackie wasn’t strictly trying to be “on.” “The Comedian” stages an extended wedding sequence that devolves into little more than a shrill, profanity laced shouting match, a corny moment in which he sings a smutty song about “making poopie” for retired octogenarians in Florida, and a promising roast at the Friars Club for a comedic legend (Cloris Leachman) with a few cameos that fizzle out too soon.
Eventually the film diverts away from his showbiz problems to his questionable relationship with Harmony 30 years his junior and the disapproval of her father (Harvey Keitel). But their romance is ancillary to his career struggles. Mann plays Harmony as high strung but empathetic and just trying to get by. She nails a lengthy monologue in which she’s on the verge of tears but breathlessly trying to prove to Burke that her life is great. It’s one of the few funny moments separate from the on-stage jabs.
If you’re expecting something interesting about “The Comedian,” the joke’s on you.
2 ½ stars