'Monkeybone': manic, frantic, and forgettable

Halfway through Monkeybone, Brendan Fraser's dopey character, Stu Miley, meets up with Death herself, played as an irritable administrator by Whoopi Goldberg. Stu foils her administering and Death gets so angry that her head explodes, a situation for which her humble servant is well equipped—he rushes to get her a replacement head from a closet full of them. Monkeybone is teeming with such overwrought and ponderous humor. It's one thing that Death is depicted as a smart-talking woman who claims she "puts in an honest day's work." But Sam Hamm, the screenwriter, couldn't leave it at that—Death has to have a mean temper, a bumbling and mumbling henchman, and replaceable body parts. Not that I don't enjoy a little excess; but the brand of excess in Monkeybone means to be gleeful and silly like an Adam Sandler movie, but ends up just being too much, like your Aunt May Beth's displays of affection.

COURTESY 20TH CENTURY FOX Wow. A car accident is a lot cheaper than acid.

The movie centers on Stu Miley, a cartoonist whose life is finally taking a turn for the better. His cartoon character, Monkeybone, is garnering accolades, and the television series might afford him a measure of financial stability. But the best thing in his life, and what seems to be the linchpin in his recent success, is his girlfriend, Dr. Julie McElroy (Bridget Fonda). McElroy not only lavishes a '50s-era love on Stu, but also cures him of insomnia—she is a sleep therapist. Before entering the care of McElroy, Stu had been plagued by such terrible cauchmares that he rarely, if ever, got a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, Stu's good luck does not have any staying power: on the night he plans to propose to Julie, he gets into a car accident which plunges him into a coma—and the world of the subconscious, "Downtown." The plot quickly devolves there, but the main thrust of it is that Stu really, really wants to get back to his girlfriend, and if he has to cheat Death, or her brother, Hypnos, the ruler of Downtown, to do that, so be it.

The makers of Monkeybone seem to have the same attitude in drawing a laugh from the audience. If they have to steal from Salvador Dali dreamscapes, or tap into our jealousy/derision for the franchise establishment, so be it.

Other than one unbelievably funny chase sequence involving a team of doctors in an SUV, the recently dead body of an Olympic gymnast, and a benefit dinner, Monkeybone falls flat. What is intended to be funny and clever is often just sophomoric. Downtown—purportedly the land of nightmares, the creepy realm of the unconscious—isn't even close to being as freaky as a night in Vegas. To be fair, Monkeybone has a tough line to walk—it's a comedy set, for the most part, in the land between life and death. Even so, the result is a movie in which nothing is all that frightening or funny.

Stu's Monkeybone cartoon, which runs in the first scene of the film, disappoints in much the same way as the movie as a whole. Clearly referencing such cartoons like "The Itchy and Scratchy Show," the show is neither as disturbing nor as funny, and the animation is certainly not as visually interesting. The combination of the live-action and animation à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, seems out of place—cheery and annoying rather than macabre.

What's amazing is that director Harry Selick had previously created some quality stuff—with Tim Burton—in The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Monkeybone lacks not only Nightmare's insight into the creepy, but also its oddball charm. Perhaps without Burton's eccentric and classy artistic guidance, Selick was unable to maintain the same quality. Whatever the reason, he just doesn't pull it off. I kept feeling like they had to be kidding—this wasn't even a poor shadow of what could drive fear into my mortal soul.

What's not so amazing is Fraser and Fonda's involvement in this movie. Both actors have consistently chosen bad roles in bad movies (with the important exception, on Fraser's part, of Gods and Monsters). Fonda does almost nothing but look pretty and smile reassuringly in her role as Stu's girlfriend. I'm really not sure whether there was anything more to be done with what the script gave her, but I still had to watch her look alternately morose and hopeful and not much else for two hours. Fraser basically reprises his stock character from George of the Jungle, Blast From the Past, and Encino Man: a dopey, socially awkward guy with a heart of gold. Seeing this character three times was more than enough; for his sake and for ours, Fraser should move on.

So, bottom line: rent Monkeybone (maybe), fast-forward to the funny chase scene, laugh, and press eject.

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