I have always liked Eddie Murphy. Some of my favourite movies had him perform brilliantly in the Klumps films, and the Nutty Professor. This film is pleasant, but bland and flabby. It has no substance. The plot is simple enough--- Murphy is in a "death struggle" with a rival at his competitive work environment, and he is unexpectedly rescued by his young daughter's fantasy relationships with her fairy princesses and other invisible friends.
There would be nothing wrong with that plot were it not that the film doesn't seem to have any backbone. No internal support. It is like the work of a friend of mine, a designer and remodeler of houses and buildings. She will sometimes construct life-sized versions of proposed building changes with large sheets of cardboard, held together with duct tape. She will place these "new" walls and elements right in the actual places they would occupy if installed. This technique gives one a very real sense of what the proposed changes will look and feel like. But the cardboard does not actually substitute for real structures. It is not designed to.
This film has that same cardboardy and insubstantial feel to it. One gets the "idea" of the story, but not a real substantive story. As if the writer and director merely sketched out a rough and thin version of the finished product, but then forgot to go back replace the sketches with actual, solid, real parts.
For example, Murphy has an arch enemy in this film--- a smarmy con-man type who presents himself as some kind of native American Medicine Man or shaman. He even calls himself Mr. Whitefeather, and wears clothes and jewelry with a Navajo motif. He even wears eagle feathers in one scene, and peppers his speech with commercialised versions of faux-Medicine-Man psycho-babble. He uses his "Indianness" to dazzle potential clients who are caught up in the exotica of a tribal theme. But, we find out he is really a fake, with a great-grandfather Navaho, making him a virtual non-starter in the PC world of "Let's be nice to the Natives." OK, fine--- but what does that have to do with Murphy and his daughter? Sadly, nothing at all. Yes, the con man's deception was disgraceful, but it also belonged in some other movie, not this one.
The child actress playing the daughter was charming, and a very good actor. yet 90% of the time I could not account for her moods--- she is withdrawn and moody. Why? Dunno... What's the moodiness leading to next in the plot? Again, dunno...
The cause-and-effect logic of Murphy and his fellow cast members' actions was also not at all clear. The scenes kind of existed, at times, as static and unrelated events. Never did I laugh (nor did the audience), and never was I puzzled, surprised, delighted, or otherwise engaged.
This film needed another 6 months of rewriting and rethinking before being made. Murphy is a genius! Can't ANYONE write a decent movie for him?
There would be nothing wrong with that plot were it not that the film doesn't seem to have any backbone. No internal support. It is like the work of a friend of mine, a designer and remodeler of houses and buildings. She will sometimes construct life-sized versions of proposed building changes with large sheets of cardboard, held together with duct tape. She will place these "new" walls and elements right in the actual places they would occupy if installed. This technique gives one a very real sense of what the proposed changes will look and feel like. But the cardboard does not actually substitute for real structures. It is not designed to.
This film has that same cardboardy and insubstantial feel to it. One gets the "idea" of the story, but not a real substantive story. As if the writer and director merely sketched out a rough and thin version of the finished product, but then forgot to go back replace the sketches with actual, solid, real parts.
For example, Murphy has an arch enemy in this film--- a smarmy con-man type who presents himself as some kind of native American Medicine Man or shaman. He even calls himself Mr. Whitefeather, and wears clothes and jewelry with a Navajo motif. He even wears eagle feathers in one scene, and peppers his speech with commercialised versions of faux-Medicine-Man psycho-babble. He uses his "Indianness" to dazzle potential clients who are caught up in the exotica of a tribal theme. But, we find out he is really a fake, with a great-grandfather Navaho, making him a virtual non-starter in the PC world of "Let's be nice to the Natives." OK, fine--- but what does that have to do with Murphy and his daughter? Sadly, nothing at all. Yes, the con man's deception was disgraceful, but it also belonged in some other movie, not this one.
The child actress playing the daughter was charming, and a very good actor. yet 90% of the time I could not account for her moods--- she is withdrawn and moody. Why? Dunno... What's the moodiness leading to next in the plot? Again, dunno...
The cause-and-effect logic of Murphy and his fellow cast members' actions was also not at all clear. The scenes kind of existed, at times, as static and unrelated events. Never did I laugh (nor did the audience), and never was I puzzled, surprised, delighted, or otherwise engaged.
This film needed another 6 months of rewriting and rethinking before being made. Murphy is a genius! Can't ANYONE write a decent movie for him?