For all the partying allegedly done in college, it sure is hard work getting in there. At least it looks that way for Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks), who has the desire, the will, and the grades to get into Stanford. And yet fate conspires against him at every turn. His guidance counselor sends the wrong transcript; Shaun’s mother (Catherine O’Hara) can’t stay sober long enough to impress a member of Stanford’s Board of Directors (Garry Marshall). Sadly, all his hopes rest in the hands of his dangerously burned-out older brother Lance (Jack Black).
Maybe it’s payback for coming to over-achieving rather late. Up until his junior year, Shaun wanted nothing more than to surf, slack, and soak up his parents’ money. Then one of his buddies took on a wave too big. Death has a way of changing things, and that darkly funny moment gave Shaun his ambition.
Orange County knows that we’ve been down similar roads before, in a lot of bad teen comedies, but a twisted script by Mike White and sure direction from Jake Kasdan separate it from the pack.
As he did in Chuck and Buck, White draws wildly dysfunctional characters but stops just short of unbelievability. Shaun’s family may be a horror, but every one of them seems real. The former beauty married to the invalid may seem an easy bit, but White makes sure that you understand how they got there. Every speaking character, too, gets a memorable personality, including White himself as an English teacher clearly rushed into a classroom due to a teacher shortage. (“Romeo and Juliet makes you think of who?” “Claire Danes?” “That’s right!”)
White’s sensibilities have found a good match in Kasdan. The two worked together on the late, lamented Freaks and Geeks, a show that wasn’t afraid to show the awful truth about being a teen. Though Kasdan plays a few scenes into farce, for the most part you never question his reality. Moreover, the director has an excellent eye for casting and bringing out the best in actors, reining in even the good but often hammy John Lithgow as Shaun’s estranged father.
Part of that eye involves a sense of history, and Kasdan acknowledges those who have come before in this genre. Sketch comedy greats like Lily Tomlin (as Shaun’s dippy guidance counselor), O’Hara, and Harold Ramis (Stanford’s Dean of Admissions) get to inhabit characters again, instead of just getting cast as stunts. Ramis in particular has not been this relaxed (and fun) onscreen since the original Ghostbusters. The only comedy vet cast for his persona is Chevy Chase as the high school principal. Even though his talent gets wasted, it gets wasted well.
The young leads hold their own. Wisely, Hanks doesn’t shy away from the more annoying aspects of his character; Shaun may be a nice guy, but he tends to be a whiner. It’s a far cry from Hanks’ recent turn in Band of Brothers. At 24, he may not be as good as his father (who wasn’t that good at 24, either) but he is on his way. As Shaun’s ecologically minded girlfriend Ashley, Schuyler Fisk has a simple luminousness. You may not understand why she’s with Shaun, but you understand why he’s with her. Unfortunately, though the script gives her personality, it does not give her much to do beyond being “the girl.”
Playing the requisite slob, Black recaptures the energy he had in High Fidelity. When used right, Black can seem a comic genius. Thankfully, he bubbles along without taking over the film. He may owe more than a little to John Belushi, but the homage plays with a sense that underneath the haze, Lance has wasted a pretty good mind. Such a mixture of stupidity and wit can be hard to pull off.
If Orange County hits any disappointing note, it’s that it does wrap up somewhat conventionally. Still, if White and Kasdan had to compromise a little to get more into the mainstream, it’s a good trade-off, because both of them have voices and visions that we need to experience again.
