Director Jody Hill’s second movie after the independent comedy The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report, is not your typical comedy. Though the film is about a mall security guard, it’s miles away from this year’s surprise hit, Paul Blart: Mall Cop. In fact, it has much more in common with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
Observe and Report stars Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express) as Ronnie Barnhardt, a man who takes his job as head of mall security seriously, perhaps a little too seriously. When a pervert begins flashing patrons at the Forest Ridge Mall, Ronnie makes it his goal to apprehend the offender. Ronnie puts together a mall security team consisting of the Yuen twins (Matt and John Yuan), his best friend Dennis (Michael Peña, Shooter), and trainee Charles (Jesse Plemons, TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) to help him in his quest.
Ronnie gets offended when the mall’s manager Mark (Dan Bakkedahl) brings in a police detective (Ray Liotta, Goodfellas) to help in the case. Ronnie decides to try and join the police force to show everyone what he is capable of, while also trying to win the heart of a cosmetic counter employee, Brandi (Anna Faris, The House Bunny). With the support of his alcoholic mother (Celia Weston, Junebug) and a friendly food court employee Nell (Collette Wolfe, The Foot Fist Way), Ronnie hopes to make his dreams come true.
The movie looks and sounds like a typical R-rated comedy initially, but Observe and Report is much more than another comedy that shows some nudity and uses four letter words. It is a character study, examining the stability of Barnhardt, and the movie can be graphic, morbidly so, at times.
Ronnie is delusional, depressed and on medication to help him get by. He has no filter and says whatever he thinks, whether it is socially acceptable or not never comes into consideration. Ronnie wants the world to love him, but thinks that the way to achieve this is through violence.
Taking this into consideration, one cannot help but want Ronnie to save the day. He has a distinct view of what is right and what is wrong, regardless of how he goes about stopping wrongdoing. His perceptions can be viewed as flawed at best and insane at worst, but Ronnie means well, and this is what matters in the end
Observe and Report is full of scenes that will make audiences cringe or stare in disbelief. Ronnie’s mother openly blames him for his father leaving them, yet she still loves and cares for Ronnie dearly.
Brandi, Ronnie’s love interest, is an alcoholic who is self-centered, and basically trashy.
Det. Harrison (Liotta) goes out of his way to embarrass and endanger Ronnie simply because he cannot stand him. Ronnie himself makes racist comments towards a fellow mall employee because he is of Arabic descent.
In spite of everything, however, Observe and Report is an often funny and deeply interesting film. It is a marked improvement over Hill’s directorial debut was like an R-rated, unfunny Napoleon Dynamite. Many of the film’s most offensive moments provide as many laughs as they do gasps, and Hill has created a character in Ronnie Barnhardt that is comedy’s answer to Travis Bickle.
The performances in the film are generally well done.
Anna Faris is well cast as Brandi, and she plays the shallow persona to a tee. Faris makes audiences loathe Brandi, who may well be the most unsympathetic character in the film.
Celia Weston is painfully funny as Ronnie’s mother, who is cared for by her son as much as she cares for him.
Collette Wolfe is sweet and endearing as Nell, and may be the only ‘good’ character in the film.
The only turn that doesn’t impress is Peña as Dennis, which can probably be attributed to the script.
Dennis is strangely effeminate yet has definitive heterosexual tendencies, and he is close to Ronnie though there seems to be no common bond between the two.
Other performances aside, Rogen, who makes Ronnie Barnhardt his own, dominates the film.
Rogen, who has been generally typecast as a lazy stoner, shows the most depth and range of his career. Ronnie could have easily been a deplorable character in the hands of a lesser actor, but Rogen puts a life into him that makes him sympathetic and almost lovable. He plays clueless and innocent just as well as he does a man teetering on the edge of insanity, which are both major aspects of Ronnie’s persona.
Observe and Report is not a film for everyone, and anyone who sees it will likely be offended by something. With that in mind,
The film is a sometimes hilarious and often disturbing film, and is one of the boldest mainstream movies released in the last few years.
Before you go out and buy your tickets to the latest movie churned out by the Disney channel, see this.
Though not perfect by any standard, it is a unique and well thought out work that is well-worth seeing.
