Movie Review

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

Movies like "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" walk a slippery slope. This is the kind of flick not interested in story structure or characters really; it?s here for the sole purpose of making us laugh. That presents a do-or-die situation in which the laughs have to continually keep coming or the whole thing falls apart. Only director Albert Brooks has come up with an intriguing concept here (what makes the Muslims laugh?), which is substantially heightened by a very funny opening.

We first see him doing a reading for a Penny Marshall remake of ?Harvey,? only to be chastised by her for doing that lousy remake of "The In-Laws.? It's this inability to find work that leads him to the door of former senator turned actor Fred Dalton Thompson, who wants Brooks to head up a new comedy campaign. When Thompson first introduces the project, he begins by saying "The president has a great sense of humor,? to which Brooks can only look on in stunned confusion. Brooks is to go to India and Pakistan to find out what makes the Muslims laugh and write a 500 page report on it. Saddled with two government agents (John Carroll Lynch, Jon Tenney) and a secretary named Maya (Sheetal Sheth) in tote, Brook's goes to India to begin the interview process.

Brooks does manage to wring out some very big laughs, usually involving him crashing into a cultural wall. The best scene comes when he does a stand-up comedy routine in New Delhi, turning to ventriloquism and improvisation to try and gauge what people think is funny. He discovers, at his expense, that no one in the audience even knows how each bit is supposed to work. There is also a really funny scene in which Brooks is offered the title role in an Al-Jazeera sitcom called "That Darn Jew.? In these scenes, Brooks manages to touch upon some of the cultural differences that divide us but unfortunately the rest of the movie is not nearly as daring.

The political post-9/11 climate is barely even referenced. There is a lame subplot about Brooks being a spy but for the most part this movie is mainly there to amuse. Brooks arrives in India, uses the country to brush off some shtick ? some of it works, some of it doesn?t, and all of it is completely unmemorable. The movie doesn't leave us feeling like we've wasted an hour and a half but the fact that it never becomes a really funny world-as-it-is-today satire leaves us with something to be desired, especially since the film begins so promisingly. As a comedy this is a decent way to kill some time but as something that could have weighed in on politics, cultural stereotypes, social climate, and so much more, this is a seriously missed opportunity. Brooks gets the ball rolling but just never hits it out of the park.

Craig's Grade: C+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%