We all make little promises that we think mean nothing. But here’s a word of advice for John Plummer (Jason Lee): never make one on videotape. If he’d had that advice twelve years ago, he would not have promised his heart-broken niece that he would pay for her college education. That taped promise rolls the plot of Stealing Harvard into motion. But like much of the whole movie, it’s a moment that you might buy as you’re watching it that falls apart the more you think about it. If every character in the scene is actually on the tape, who’s got the camera?
The movie ends up being a bunch of half-baked ideas like that, existing only to move the thin plot along, yet thrown together in a way that makes it hold together far better than it should. Give the credit to that to director Bruce McCulloch and some very good character actors. McCulloch directs with the rhythms of his Kids In The Hall days, where every moment lingers just a hair past the point of being funny, and then becomes funny again (to some of us, anyway). Every situation has something just a little bit off, with premises barely this side of believable.
You’d think that would be perfect for an actor (?) like Tom Green, who gets top billing in this movie as John’s friend Duff. For the first half of the film, though, McCulloch seems to have difficulty figuring out how to really capture whatever it is that makes people want to watch his fellow weird Canadian. Green himself doesn’t offer much of it, either. When it finally gels, it may be too late for some audiences.
As the beleaguered John, Lee continues to prove himself an actor better than his dialogue. Having cut his teeth on Kevin Smith’s idiosyncratic rhythms, Lee does what he can with Peter Tolan’s words, but he still seems a little mannered in his delivery. He’s used to speaking dialogue where everything has some meaning, and in this movie, not everything does. Seriously, this former skate pro needs to tackle Shakespeare, or at least convince a studio that he and Kevin Smith would totally rock on Fletch. (They would, by the way.)
Ambling its way through some low-key moneymaking schemes, the movie doesn’t really kick into high gear until its third act. I’m torn over this, because most movies this year have had exactly the opposite problem, falling apart after promising starts. This one comes together for a completely satisfying and often hilarious last half-hour.
What keeps you interested up until that point is in the smaller performances. From Freaks and Geeks, Martin Starr makes the transition to adult comedy roles slightly less awkwardly than expected. As John’s fiancée Elaine, Leslie Mann actually imbues her role with a dramatic arc. She could have gotten away with less in an underwritten role, proving that more movies need her.
The most intense performance comes from John C. McGinley, as Detective Charles, a cop so close to busting John and Duff for a string of heists and yet so far. In a part that could easily have fit in a Kids In The Hall sketch, McGinley steals every scene that he’s in. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get nearly enough interaction with Green; he might have brought up the MTV celeb’s performance up a couple of notches.
For those fans of outtakes, McCulloch has made the odd choice of stringing them all in after the credits are over. If you can wait that long, they’re mildly amusing, just like the rest of the movie.
