Written by Linda
March 04, 2009
Fanboys (and girls) will be excited to hear that the long-delayed big-screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (it was a radio show, then book, then TV mini-series... I think in that order) is pretty darn good. But then, of course, this is coming from someone who has never seen, nor heard, nor read any of Douglas Adams' series of goofy stories (though my family, like every other family, seemed to have a copy or two of the books gathering dust on a shelf). I've read that the movie doesn't exactly stick to the original, but heck, the late Adams has his name all over the movie, so people can't really complain, can they? In my opinion, this is the funniest (and most fun) sci-fi movie since Galaxy Quest.
Arthur Dent (everyman Martin Freeman of BBC's brilliant The Office) is having a bad day that is about to get worse. There is a bulldozer in his front yard, as developers have a plan to pave a byway right through his house. But that is nothing when the world suddenly comes to an end, just after his best pal Ford Prefect (Mos Def) grabs him, still in his robe with towel clutched in hand, and hitchhikes them a ride onto a spaceship driven by big blobs that aren't the friendliest of drooly characters. If the shock of finding out that his best friend is an alien isn't enough, when he and Ford get rescued by another ship, Arthur runs into an almost ex-Earth-flame girl named Trish (Zooey Deschanel) that he met at a party. Their new home-away-from home happens to be driven by the President of the Galaxy (goofy Sam Rockwell, donning a VERY Dave-Stewart-of-Eurythmics-early-90s-look) and a melancholy robot sidekick named Marvin.
OK, since half the time I didn't really make much of the plot, I will talk about Marvin. I heart Marvin. Marvin is a humanoid (in the two-arms, two legs sense) robot, and he has a bulbous head so out-of-proportion big that it tends to hang forward a woe-is-me slump. Marvin is voiced by the lovely Alan Rickman, who is known by many as Harry Potter's Professor Snape. Rickman's token dry, disenchanted voice is the perfect match for this melancholy robot who steals every scene he's in. Marvin would say something self-depreciating or bitter, would be ignored, and would heave a world-weary sigh, shoulders slumping with the weight of the universe. By this time the main characters would be on to something new, leaving poor Marvin shuffling defeated in the background. The thing is, he's a ROBOT! And you know what? I laughed every time!
Hitchhiker's plot has something to do with our heroes figuring out the question to the answer of the universe (the answer being, famously, "42"), while in the meantime they avoid the blobbies, and search for some sort of fancy gun. It didn't always make a lot of sense, I'll admit. But the journey there is really fun, and, dare I say, almost entirely inoffensive (how often can you say that these days?).
Hitchhiker is one of those movies that could have been very in-jokey, considering it has legions of fans that will pick it apart. But, while being quite clever, the script doesn't leave people behind in an attempt to please the geeks. With a narrator (Stephen Fry) butting in occasionally, the film breaks up the action with clever animated sequences from the Hitchhiker's Guide book, explaining bits and pieces to those of us who are clueless (like Arthur Dent). The special effects are top-notch, and there is a particular scene involving a "normalizer" and a ball of yarn that will live in infamy in my book.
Other than a sometimes baffling plot, the film only suffers (and I say slightly suffers) from a rather random cast. I couldn't help but wonder if all the effort was put into assembling a top-notch voice cast (Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, and Alan Rickman, among others) so that perhaps a little less attention was given to finding the perfect person to play the main characters. Martin Freeman and Sam Rockwell are perfectly fine for their roles, but Mos Def is a little subdued to be memorable, and Zooey Deschanel seems to be tyring, but doesn't make much of an impression.
But other than those minor quibbles, Hitchhiker is a good time. I may not be a geek, but I appreciated the clever script and the refreshingly non-potty-humor comedy. The preview audience applauded the film's credits, the opening monologue, the first appearance of Marvin, and they even applauded at the end (a lot better sign than the defeated Star Wars fans quietly shuffling out of Episodes 1 and 2). Apparently there are several more books in the not-so-accurately dubbed "trilogy". If, say, another Hitchhiker movie or two (or three) were to blast into a theater near me, heck, I'd have no qualms about standing in line for another ride.
