"The Jerk" is one of these comedies where basically anything can happen for the sake of a good laugh challenging good taste in more than one occasion. Carl Reiner's film is raunchy and outrageous but also heart-warming, and romantic, even more effectively so. Overall, it's not much if the film is funny but if the kind of fun it delivers is enjoyable or not. Not everyone would enjoy it that's for sure, but even the non-funny parts have a certain funny way to be funny. Let me expand on that.
I'm an open-minded mind when it comes to comedies and I don't always expect to get loud uproars of laughter but if I can enjoy the film on the simple basis of its story and how compelling the hero is, well half the job is done. And let me say it is a real tour de force performance of Steve Martin as Navin Johnson, the titular jerk, the kind of role where an actor gives so much of himself the role it becomes a prowess of physical achievement, the closest I can think of is Jim Carrey.... except that his Ace Ventura was a real jerk, which Ebert and Siskel detested.
And I guess this is why the late critics didn't like the film, Ebert wrote a long essay about the kind of humor delivered in "The Jerk", explaining quite eloquently the distanciation between the subject of the laughing and the purpose, should we laugh at something because it's funny or because it implies something that is even funnier? I agree that "The Jerk" works more on a first-degree level and may leave fans of sophisticated humor on their hunger and maybe neither he or Siskel was too fond of overly obnoxious characters. While it took me a while to appreciate Navin, "The Jerk" is still enjoyable in my book, not funny funny but enjoyable funny.
And this has got to do with the most misleading title since "The Never Ending Story" for Navin Johnsonis perhaps the nicest and most enthusiastic goofball you'll see in a film and more a victim of other jerks who abuse his wide-eyed naivety than a real one. The film tells its rags-to-riches-then-to-rags story starting in all picaresque fashion, with him as a bum starting the story of his life with the infamous "I was born a poor black child", a line I was anticipating like "I'll be back" in an Arnie film. For some stupid reason, the line filled my heart with satisfaction as I discovered it as one of the 400 nominees in AFI most iconic quotes, many years ago.
In fact that line is the first hint of gentleness in the character, when I read it I thought it was just a lie only a jerk can commit, appropriating himself the usual narrative of the black kid growing up in the country. But that the line was to be taken at face value with Navin being brought up by a loving family composed of a good mother (Mabel King) and Father (Richard Ward) trades the clever cynicism for genuine sweetness. Naturally, there had to be a few ethnic jokes like when Navin learning the truth about his past and commenting about his skin color but it's got a fine payoff when he engages in fighting kung-fu style with a bunch of goons who used the N word (watch carefully and you'll see Luca Brasi among them).
The family sequence is soothing and fills hearts with enough warmth to establish Navin as anything but the jerk, and at his 35th birthday, when he decides to discover the world and wear pilot goggles for that, there's no need to question it... and summing up the journey of Navin would be futile. The film is a succession of pinball-like encounters where his weirdness never seems to attract suspicion, and so we follow Navin as a gas station attendant working for Jackie Mason, discovering with wide eyes his room, mistaking it for the toilet, and delivering the hilarious "this must be the kitchen".
There's such a quirky likability in Steve Martin that it would take a rather cynical eye not to fell in love with the character, truly an invention of his own on the same level that French comical actor Pierre Richard. He's so effective that the film takes needless turns when other characters seem to compete with his weirdness and that include R. Emmet Walsh as trigger-happy madman but then again for one or two uncertain jokes, there's one big gag that redeems it, and right now, I can't get off my mind his smile when he realizes how much money he's made, I'm surprised this hasn't become a popular meme. And how did he get the money? Well, beyond his cheerful façade, there's brain working, like his invention of the optigrab, a glasses handler, in that scene where he explains the troubles with finger pressure applied glasses, being bespectacled myself, I was listening.
There's also a sweet romantic interlude with Bernadette Peters, following his agressive relationship with a daredevil biker played by Caitlin Adams. Peters plays her role with a sort of Madeline Kahn quality, she's such a sweet little doll who underplays her wackiness making her the perfect match for Navin. Included in the cast are also Carl Reiner in a fun cameo that backfires the idea of the optigrab.
Overall, if not exactly a laugh riot justified by its inclusion on AFI Top 100 comedies (yes, I'm an AFI buff), the film throws so many gags that there's not a minute going without one good laugh.. In fact, he's like a good crossover between Ace Ventura and Forrest Gump, as a guy who succeeds thanks to and despite himself, and like Hanks in "Gump", Martin at least didn't go full 'jerk', for lack of a better word...
I'm an open-minded mind when it comes to comedies and I don't always expect to get loud uproars of laughter but if I can enjoy the film on the simple basis of its story and how compelling the hero is, well half the job is done. And let me say it is a real tour de force performance of Steve Martin as Navin Johnson, the titular jerk, the kind of role where an actor gives so much of himself the role it becomes a prowess of physical achievement, the closest I can think of is Jim Carrey.... except that his Ace Ventura was a real jerk, which Ebert and Siskel detested.
And I guess this is why the late critics didn't like the film, Ebert wrote a long essay about the kind of humor delivered in "The Jerk", explaining quite eloquently the distanciation between the subject of the laughing and the purpose, should we laugh at something because it's funny or because it implies something that is even funnier? I agree that "The Jerk" works more on a first-degree level and may leave fans of sophisticated humor on their hunger and maybe neither he or Siskel was too fond of overly obnoxious characters. While it took me a while to appreciate Navin, "The Jerk" is still enjoyable in my book, not funny funny but enjoyable funny.
And this has got to do with the most misleading title since "The Never Ending Story" for Navin Johnsonis perhaps the nicest and most enthusiastic goofball you'll see in a film and more a victim of other jerks who abuse his wide-eyed naivety than a real one. The film tells its rags-to-riches-then-to-rags story starting in all picaresque fashion, with him as a bum starting the story of his life with the infamous "I was born a poor black child", a line I was anticipating like "I'll be back" in an Arnie film. For some stupid reason, the line filled my heart with satisfaction as I discovered it as one of the 400 nominees in AFI most iconic quotes, many years ago.
In fact that line is the first hint of gentleness in the character, when I read it I thought it was just a lie only a jerk can commit, appropriating himself the usual narrative of the black kid growing up in the country. But that the line was to be taken at face value with Navin being brought up by a loving family composed of a good mother (Mabel King) and Father (Richard Ward) trades the clever cynicism for genuine sweetness. Naturally, there had to be a few ethnic jokes like when Navin learning the truth about his past and commenting about his skin color but it's got a fine payoff when he engages in fighting kung-fu style with a bunch of goons who used the N word (watch carefully and you'll see Luca Brasi among them).
The family sequence is soothing and fills hearts with enough warmth to establish Navin as anything but the jerk, and at his 35th birthday, when he decides to discover the world and wear pilot goggles for that, there's no need to question it... and summing up the journey of Navin would be futile. The film is a succession of pinball-like encounters where his weirdness never seems to attract suspicion, and so we follow Navin as a gas station attendant working for Jackie Mason, discovering with wide eyes his room, mistaking it for the toilet, and delivering the hilarious "this must be the kitchen".
There's such a quirky likability in Steve Martin that it would take a rather cynical eye not to fell in love with the character, truly an invention of his own on the same level that French comical actor Pierre Richard. He's so effective that the film takes needless turns when other characters seem to compete with his weirdness and that include R. Emmet Walsh as trigger-happy madman but then again for one or two uncertain jokes, there's one big gag that redeems it, and right now, I can't get off my mind his smile when he realizes how much money he's made, I'm surprised this hasn't become a popular meme. And how did he get the money? Well, beyond his cheerful façade, there's brain working, like his invention of the optigrab, a glasses handler, in that scene where he explains the troubles with finger pressure applied glasses, being bespectacled myself, I was listening.
There's also a sweet romantic interlude with Bernadette Peters, following his agressive relationship with a daredevil biker played by Caitlin Adams. Peters plays her role with a sort of Madeline Kahn quality, she's such a sweet little doll who underplays her wackiness making her the perfect match for Navin. Included in the cast are also Carl Reiner in a fun cameo that backfires the idea of the optigrab.
Overall, if not exactly a laugh riot justified by its inclusion on AFI Top 100 comedies (yes, I'm an AFI buff), the film throws so many gags that there's not a minute going without one good laugh.. In fact, he's like a good crossover between Ace Ventura and Forrest Gump, as a guy who succeeds thanks to and despite himself, and like Hanks in "Gump", Martin at least didn't go full 'jerk', for lack of a better word...