In Observe and Report, Seth Rogen plays a man so unnervingly
insane, it’s sometimes hard to figure out whether you should laugh or
scream at him. His complete lack of stability gives the film—a
hilarious effort from director Jody Hill—that wonderful and
somewhat scary vibe that anything can happen. The funny-film rulebook
was thrown out the proverbial window for this one.
Rogen is Ronnie, a bipolar mall security guard bent on becoming a
police officer who is dangerously in love with perfume-counter girl
Brandi (Anna Faris, giving a fearless and funny performance). When a
trench-coat-wearing pervert flashes Brandi in the parking lot, Ronnie
makes it his mission to protect her—and to take her out to
dinner. A real cop (Ray Liotta) shows up to investigate the pervert,
and Ronnie immediately dubs the man his mortal enemy.
As for his home life, Ronnie lives with his drunken mother (Celia
Weston), who bestows messed-up wisdom between blackout spells. He
collects guns in hopes that the law will one day allow him to
supplement a work arsenal that already includes taser guns and
flashlights wielded like police batons. He’s also taking some
medication to help with the bipolar thing, but decides that the pills
are not necessary. Ronnie is wrong … very, very wrong.
In Ronnie’s mind, his date with Brandi is the greatest night of his
life, culminating in a nice, hearty round of lovemaking. To the
audience, the finale is pretty close to date rape, although the film
cops out a bit. The moment winds up just short of being one of the
sickest film-comedy moments of all time. Scratch that: It’s still in
the top 50.
Ronnie’s pursuit of a career with the police is unfortunate and
misguided. He aces the physical part of the preliminary training (a
very funny sequence) but screws up a bit during the psychological part
of the exam. Hint to Ronnie: Don’t end your session with a person
evaluating your sanity by pantomiming shotgun blasts into her face.
They frown upon that.
The supporting cast is top-notch. Michael Peña gets a chance
to bring the funny as Ronnie’s security-guard wingman, sporting a Jheri
curl and an effeminate lisp. Liotta, in his best role in years, gets a
chance to rage, Goodfellas-style, after the initial appearance
of being calm, cool and collected. As a coffee-counter girl with a
debilitating cast, relative newcomer Collette Wolfe is charming and
sweet. The moment when she breaks down in front of Ronnie is one of the
film’s best—a sign that Wolfe should be getting some big roles in
the future.
With each film, Rogen gets better. He recently claimed that he
doesn’t want serious roles, but the role of Ronnie is pretty damned
serious. Rogen is quite convincing as a man with tremendous rage
problems and delusions of grandeur. Also, a couple of scenes in which
Ronnie goes off on attackers show that Rogen might make for a fine
superhero when he takes on the role of the Green Hornet next year.
Ronnie comes off as an uncomfortable mixture of two Martin Scorsese
film characters, Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver and Rupert Pupkin
from The King of Comedy. Both characters (played by the immortal
Robert De Niro) had stalking tendencies. While Ronnie possesses
Bickle’s propensity toward violence, he’s also a good-natured, comedic
stalker that lives with his momma, like Pupkin.
The film has some gross scenes, but I wouldn’t label it as a
gross-out comedy. It definitely thrives on the outrageous and bizarre,
and inspires as many stunned gasps as laughs. Although Ronnie does
merit comparisons to Scorsese characters of the past, he’s comfortably
off in his own special, deranged category.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.