The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Director: Garth Jennings)

Jennings is mostly known for music videos. An adaptation of the Douglas Adams sci-fi comedy, this film has been over 20 years in the making. At one point, long ago, Ivan Reitman was attached to this and future Ghostbusters Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were being considered to star in it, but then, Ghostbusters came along. Then later, it was Jay Roach going to direct with Hugh Laurie playing Arthur Dent, Jim Carrey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Nigel Hawthorne as Slartibartfast--that would have ruled. Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay before he died, and there is assistance from Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run, James and the Giant Peach).

I read The Hitchhiker's Guide way back when I was 11 years old. I listened to the audio tapes, I bought the horrible BBC adaptation of it. There may not be a piece of literature I am more familiar with. So, naturally, when I see the big-screen version of the "unfilmable" Hitchhiker's Guide, I look for key scenes and how they are played. I sort of used the two people (not familiar with the books) who were watching it with me to sort of assist me in judging the film's presentation--because I have scenes and dialogue ingrained into me in such a way that when it's not played the way I imagined, it seems...wrong. So their reactions were important--are they catching some of these jokes, or are they just flying by--and if so, why?

I believe most people on this blog have read the book or even the entire series, but the synopsis of this is that Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is a man from Earth who is about to have his house demolished to make way for a bypass. His friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) knows that the Earth is about to be destroyed by the Vogons to make way for an interstellar bypass. Hitchhiking into space and taking along the unwilling and confused Earthling Dent, the two make for an episodic comedic adventure, eventually running into on-the-lam, President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and Dent's love interest Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) on the Heart of Gold, a ship with an Improbability Drive system that can change things based on high improbability. Also onboard is depressed robot Marvin (Warwick Davis, with voice by Alan Rickman). Ultimately, the story is about trying to find the answer to life, the universe, and everything, the computers that were constructed to find the answer (Deep Thought, and then alas, Earth, which was destroyed before it completed the program), and in the meantime avoiding the Vogons.

Additions to the text, made by Adams himself include Beeblebrox rival Humma Kavula (John Malkovich) and more fleshing out of the Dent/Trillian relationship, which in the book was cold at best.

Let me start with the good. Stephen Fry is the narrator, and his voice has been lent to all the various media adaptations of the story. I liked how they portrayed the Guide itself, with funny little animations playing during the various entries in the book. But for me, that's about all that was a complete success.

Comedy is a difficult little bastard. We all know what's funny when we hear it--it is subject to opinion based on how something hits you. When you read The Hitchhiker's Guide, the comedy is coming to you at a slower pace, and each punchline comes to you at your speed. When it is filmed, and the movie rockets a condensed version of a book into 2 hours, and the setup and the punchline seem to be divorced. In the book, and when you read right here, there is this joke: The Hitchhiker's Guide says of space: Space is big. Really big. You just can't imagine how vastly, hugely big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way to the chemist but that's just peanuts to space. Listen...and so on. In the movie, they cut out the "chemist" part and rush this entire line through in some sort of stream-of-consciousness sort of way. I don't think comedy needs to be a punch in the nose, but it certainly needs to make the viewer aware of an impending laugh. There are many, many instances in the film where the delivery fails. I could tell from the people next to me, they weren't hearing these jokes or even knew they were jokes.

And by the way, this has nothing to do with being British. I think most people who have a funny bone in America enjoy some Monty Python fierce. That's always been a ridiculous Euro-trash thing to say anyway. Any comedy, whether it's from Great Britain or Zimbabwe, requires a delicate touch to be really funny.

Everyone is decent in this, and Sam Rockwell is going to get the most attention--but his performance is going to wear you down after awhile (this is a by-product of his character). I did like the fact that two Galaxy Quest alums are involved, with Rockwell and Rickman.

Now wait, there are many recognizable, funny scenes in this, don't get me wrong. But even they are staged in an awkward way. I liked the Deep Thought portion where everyone is awaiting the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. That should give newbies a pretty good laugh. I just don't know how this is going to play for most uninitiated people. I know for the familiar, it's just going to be a letdown in many areas. And let me make another thing clear: I'll probably watch it again--just to make sure. If I come back from that 2nd viewing a changed man, I'll write an update to this review.

Anyway, that's my feeling...kind of a letdown.