A real weird one and a justifiably forgotten project in star Bill Murray’s long career. A remake (almost a re-imagination) of the original film (based on the Somerset Maugham novel of the same name) from 1946, this film goes deeper in certain aspects but falls flat in almost every case. Murray, then riding the wave of stardom from Saturday Night Live and Stripes, is profoundly miscast and miswritten as Larry Darrell, the thoughtful main character who, in the novel and original film, is portrayed as a kind and troubled searcher who abandons his promise as a businessman to roam the world in search of fundamental truths. Here, Murray’s worst instincts for snark and absurdism are leaned into, making him seem both shallow and petulant and doing the character and the actor no favors.
In its favor this film had a big budget, benefits from beautiful locations, a moving score, and some memorable shots (including Murray being chased by a horde of children upon landing in India and mistakenly giving some rupees to a few beggars).
This movie was clearly an Oscar prestige play for Murray, an effort made all the more ridiculous by his refusal to play anything other than Bill Murray at all times. It seems that the whole “Bill Murray in a foreign land speaking only snark-infused English to bewildered locals for the sole benefit of the viewer” act he used in “Lost in Translation” was, in fact, developed 20 years prior in northern India.
Still, by film’s end, and despite Murray’s best efforts, you get a sense of the truth that Darrell eventually finds in his searching: that a good life well lived has no reward other than for its own sake. Whether that is a truth shaded in pessimism or brightened by hope is up to the viewer.
A real weird one and a justifiably forgotten project in star Bill Murray’s long career. A remake (almost a re-imagination) of the original film (based on the Somerset Maugham novel of the same name) from 1946, this film goes deeper in certain aspects but falls flat in almost every case. Murray, then riding the wave of stardom from Saturday Night Live and Stripes, is profoundly miscast and miswritten as Larry Darrell, the thoughtful main character who, in the novel and original film, is portrayed as a kind and troubled searcher who abandons his promise as a businessman to roam the world in search of fundamental truths. Here, Murray’s worst instincts for snark and absurdism are leaned into, making him seem both shallow and petulant and doing the character and the actor no favors.
In its favor this film had a big budget, benefits from beautiful locations, a moving score, and some memorable shots (including Murray being chased by a horde of children upon landing in India and mistakenly giving some rupees to a few beggars).
This movie was clearly an Oscar prestige play for Murray, an effort made all the more ridiculous by his refusal to play anything other than Bill Murray at all times. It seems that the whole “Bill Murray in a foreign land speaking only snark-infused English to bewildered locals for the sole benefit of the viewer” act he used in “Lost in Translation” was, in fact, developed 20 years prior in northern India.
Still, by film’s end, and despite Murray’s best efforts, you get a sense of the truth that Darrell eventually finds in his searching: that a good life well lived has no reward other than for its own sake. Whether that is a truth shaded in pessimism or brightened by hope is up to the viewer.
