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THE
PALLBEARER
REVIEWED
BY CHARITY BISHOP
Our
rating: 3 out of 5 Because
of: sexual content, language, thematic elements Rated:
A
film like The Pallbearer can either be very insulting to
someone or very appealing. I've always loved Gwyneth Paltrow, so I
enjoyed her role in the film even if the rest was unsavory. It deals
with topics Christians won't like or approve of, which is
unfortunate because overall the film has a very sweet heart to it.
It's marketed as a romantic comedy but has a rather bittersweet
undertone and focuses more on human frailty than laugh-out-loud
humor. While the humor is present, it comes in the form of dry
comedy, sometimes very off the cuff. What it boils down to is a very
real story about growing up and passing from adolescence into
adulthood when you really don't know how. Unfortunately, the
standards set by this group of young people are nowhere near the
high standards we're called to by God. This in itself makes the film
a no-brainer -- don't bother with it.
Twenty-five
year old Tom Thompson (David Schwimmer) doesn't exactly have a lot going for him right
now. He still lives at home with an overprotective mother who treats
him like a kid, has never had success with job interviews, and is
single. His life is therefore severely shaken when he receives a
hysterical phone call from someone named Ruth Abernathy (Barbara
Hershey) whose son
(whom he presumably knew in high school) has just committed suicide.
She wants him to be one of the pallbearers at the funeral. A general
pushover, afraid to send her into another riot of tears, Tom agrees
-- but can't remember anything about her son! His friends, Brad and
Scott, think it's a riot. They also think he's a raving lunatic for
going along with it... particularly after Mrs. Abernathy shows up on
his front doorstep in tears and asks him to deliver the eulogy.
Things
go from complicated to extra-complicated when his old high
school crush, Julie DeMarco (Gwyneth Paltrow), returns to town. Eager to impress
her but afraid of pushing too hard, Tom fails to make a good
impression. Still, by some miracle, she asks to go to the
funeral with them. However, she doesn't find his tongue-in-cheek
eulogy all that comical. Afraid of insulting Mrs. Abernathy by
telling her the truth, Tom carries on his charade of knowing her
son. But things go from bad to worse when their empty lives
begin to entwine, leading him to a secret affair with the woman
while poor Julie deals with problems in her own life. Can he get
the mess straightened out before disaster strikes, or is he
about to make the biggest mistake of his life? And why can't he
remember this supposed high school buddy?
In
a nutshell, The Pallbearer tries to be both comical and
meaningful but fails due to the immoral nature of the storyline.
It really is a pity because in all other ways the two romantic
leads (David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow) create a lot of
wonderful chemistry together. The comic moments are always
humorous and memorable, even if many people might find them in
bad taste. (Stumbling through his eulogy at the funeral, his
lack of eloquence set the entire back row to giggling.)
Eventually the story leads Tom to abandon his ties to home and
move out into his own place to find his identity. Julie finally
takes that trip she's always dreamed about 'just for her.' There
is some sacrifice on the part of Tom in making up after an
argument. It's too bad that the film's premise hangs around an
affair between a college student and the mother of one of his
high school classmates.
The
acting is very good. The score is full of fun pop tunes. But the
implied content runs all the air out of the proverbial bicycle
tires. Language provides something of a problem. One f-word
early in the script, along with a good half dozen abuses of
Jesus' name, and with other profanity and milder abuses of
deity, make it tedious. Sexual content is pretty heavily hinted
at but never graphically shown. The scenes between Tom and Mrs.
Abernathy have a slightly sexual undertone; the older woman
dresses immodestly and likes to hug young men. In an intimate
scene they kiss and pull back onto the bed; the camera pans away
to find them 'afterward' talking together under the sheets. The
most offensive thing about it is by the film's conclusion
neither one acknowledges it was wrong. They merely 'needed each
other' at that point in time.
At
a bachelor party scantily-dressed women dance provocatively on
the stage. One of Tom's married friends makes a pass at a young
woman. Tom also becomes involved in a sexual relationship with
Julie; the two are shown talking under the sheets together. The
ending is a bit mismatched -- we don't quite know where their
relationship will go from here. When all is said and done The
Pallbearer would do best to attend its own funeral. It
leads teens under the false pretense that growing up is a
learning experience, and the more time you spend getting these
experiences, the better life will be. With a lack of a moral
foundation, films (and lives) of this nature can only lead to
disaster.
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