A youthfully naive Buster Keaton stumbles straight into trouble once again; mistaken for an escaped murderer and instantly feared by the general public, he's pursued by several well-intentioned (but functionally inept) pavement pounding police officers. This proves to be as good an excuse as any to embark upon his usual manner of clever, resourceful physical tomfoolery; persistently dodging consequence through sheer chance and/or ingenuity.
His act has often been guilty of bordering on cartoon absurdity - manipulating an elevator's floor indicator to send the whole thing through the roof, for example - but such moments of carefree indulgence are normally balanced by more a grounded human counter-balance. Less so in this case. Despite a number of frantic chase scenes, chaotic and entertaining though they may be, The Goat relies too much on the silly slapstick stuff and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from Keaton's better-recognized films. It's light and silly, smoothly paced, but I didn't find much to really dig my teeth into.
His act has often been guilty of bordering on cartoon absurdity - manipulating an elevator's floor indicator to send the whole thing through the roof, for example - but such moments of carefree indulgence are normally balanced by more a grounded human counter-balance. Less so in this case. Despite a number of frantic chase scenes, chaotic and entertaining though they may be, The Goat relies too much on the silly slapstick stuff and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from Keaton's better-recognized films. It's light and silly, smoothly paced, but I didn't find much to really dig my teeth into.