Character actors have the sweetest jobs in Hollywood. They get to appear in the biggest movies, often have some of the juiciest roles, are given a greater variety of work, and the best of them are as well-known as their movie star counterparts. More importantly, their reputations don’t live or die based on the box office. And every great character actor (Willem Dafoe, Ed Harris, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, John Malkovich, Jon Voight and Gene Hackman come to mind) has played at least one or two leading roles in their time.

John C. Reilly is among the bumper crop of recent character actors, and not because he’s an especially gifted dramatist or comedian, but because he’s equally skilled at both; an Oscar-worthy performer with a great sense of comic timing. He’s also a good singer, which makes him the perfect choice to play the title character in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

First and foremost this is a Will Ferrell-esque send-up of musicians and the evolution of the music industry in general, and the recent Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line in particular. So of course Dewey Cox learns to play “the Devil’s music” from black people. And of course when we see black people dancing it’s more explicitly sexual (basically various positions with clothes on) than anything white people do. Of course he’s noticed by recording agents while playing a black musician’s song. And of course those agents are Jewish. And of course the recording industry exec isn’t impressed with Cox’s music, and nothing Cox says will convince him to give him another chance.

The movie, however, is cowritten by Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up), which means that unlike Will Ferrell’s comedies it pays attention to its characters. And except for a few isolated scenes (the segment with the “Beatles” comes to mind) none of those characters appear to know they’re in a comedy. This becomes Walk Hard’s biggest strength, and also its glaring weakness: because the actors play it straight (and unlike Ferrell, Reilly is ALWAYS believable, even when he’s repeatedly smashing sinks, mentioning the trauma of cutting his brother in half, being talked into drugs or yelling at his pet chimpanzee) the weirdest moments (Cox is swarmed by girls 30 minutes after his first single is recorded, the characters announce their ages – and look the same – whether 15, 21, or in their 30s) are all the funnier. However, because the actors involved aren’t as skilled at improvisation as Apatow’s usual crew, the laughs aren’t as consistent. So we end up with a film that isn’t as funny as Talladega Nights or Knocked Up, and isn’t an easy sell to the audiences for either of them.

So which audience is this for? It’s for people who laugh at overt sexual innuendo (like the lyrics from one of the songs: “In my dreams, you’re blowing me… some kisses”) and enjoy a decent dumb comedy. Also, the more you know about the music industry the more you’ll enjoy it. The tunes are catchy, and the audience I was with acted like a laugh track most of the way through. But during Reilly’s dead-on Dylan impersonation, which I thought was the funniest joke in the movie, everyone else was stone silent.






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