‘Paul’ Movie Review
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are a dynamic duo. The two British comedians have made two of my favorite comedies of the last decade, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Their latest project together, Paul, serves as an homage to their love of American pop culture and all things nerd. The film has some good laughs, yet it is inconsistent, largely due to the distracting alien title character.
Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nicke Frost) are two middle-aged fanboys who travel to the United States to attend Comic Con in San Diego and then drive to famous UFO sites around the country. On their journey they encounter an alien, named Paul (Seth Rogen) who has been on Earth for 60 years and who escapes from the custody of the US government. The two friends overcome their initial reservations and agree to help Paul get to a rendezvous point where he will be picked up by the mothership.
Although the Comic Con scene is only a brief part of the beginning of the film, it is easily one of the most memorable. Graeme and Clive revel in the atmosphere where attendees are dressed up as various comic book, sci-fi and fantasy characters and they are able to meet the creators of their favorite works. Both are particularly excited about meeting Adam Shadowchild, brilliantly played by Jeffrey Tambor. Shadowchild has a general malaise for the entire Comic Con escapade yet he doesn’t dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic friends.
The two friends nerdiness allowed them to fit into the Comic Con environment, however, they are less successful at blending into rural America. Their general innocence compliments their “man-child” personas well, but puts them in dangerous situations with hillbillies and fundamentalist Christians. They meet Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), who is also a prisoner, but of her fundamentalist Christian dogma. A firm believer in Intelligent Design, she wears a shirt portraying Jesus shooting Charles Darwin, with the words “Evolve This!” underneath. Ruth sees Paul and passes out, as another life form’s existence topples her beliefs. Graeme and Clive decide to take the unconscious woman along in order to protect Paul’s whereabouts from the government.
The movie is built upon Pegg and Frost’s sophomoric humor. There are plenty of sex and bodily function jokes, most of which are clever enough to produce laughter. However, one of the funniest aspects of the film is the amount of allusions to other sci-fi movies. Both Pegg and Frost are self-confessed nerds and they make great references to Star Wars (“Boring conversation anyways…”) and Alien (“Get away from her, you bitch!”) with some help from Sigourney Weaver. These references are closely tied with the narrative and they feel natural. Most of them develop Paul’s character as we discover that he has played a central role in shaping pop culture by acting as a consultant on movies like E.T.
Although Paul has a great number of laughs and is not a derivative comedy narrative, there was one element of the film that I found particularly distracting—Seth Rogen. I’m a big fan of Rogen’s work, but he seems out of place in this film. His voice and mannerisms come through the alien character and it is all seems way to familiar. That being said, there are plenty of funny moments involving Paul, but Rogen’s familiarity detracted from the overall effect that the alien has on the viewers. Paul just seemed like one of the guys, something that didn’t make much sense in the story’s context.
