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Like many things that involve Charlie Day, “Fool’s Paradise” is deeply weird. His directorial debut, which he also wrote and stars in, is a comedy unlike anything that’s been released in the past decade, blending influences as broad as Charlie Chaplin, Albert Brooks and the Coen brothers.

A passion project that has been ten years in the making, this show business satire is about a psychiatric patient who accidentally becomes a movie star. Day’s clear ambition and wealth of good ideas in this project make it all the more disappointing because the result is so disjointed, clumsy and practically humorless.

On the surface, there’s a lot to love about “Fool’s Paradise.” The cast is stacked with huge names including Adrien Brody, John Malkovich and the late Ray Liotta. They all fully commit to whatever oddball hijinks Day puts them up to, from giving aggressive speeches laden with double entendres to wearing flamboyant hairstyles. Unfortunately, their talent is often squandered on half-baked characters and short cameos.

The film’s production design is sleek and evocative, reflecting a mashup of several periods of Hollywood history. Although the film takes place firmly in the present, the city’s architecture, cars and costumes seem pulled from the 1930s, 50s and 70s. The music also matches this style and is reminiscent of the broad orchestral scores of older Hollywood productions.

Day and his cinematographer, Nico Aguilar, shoot the film with verve and inspiration, drawing from the work of Wes Anderson, Hal Ashby and especially Jacques Tati. However, there is little purpose behind many of these choices. The direction and production design choices are lush and thoughtful, but they never feel necessary to the narrative.

The most unusual thing about the film compared to other modern comedies is that Day’s character is silent for nearly the entire runtime. At first brush, the concept of a silent hero played by Day seems like a match made in heaven. He’s shown his skills as a physical comedian on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” But the movie Day has built around his character is so dialogue-driven and chit-chatty that his character becomes lost in the noise. Day rarely allows himself to show off his physical comedy skills. Instead, his silent character mostly just makes confused faces at people while they try to explain things to him.

These elements are interesting on their own but do not come together to make an engaging final product. This is largely because the script is simply not very funny, with few jokes that land and even fewer that capitalize on the protagonist’s silence. More laughs are packed into any given 20-minute episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” than this feature-length movie. The movie feels more like a playground for Day to tinker with directorial and narrative ideas.

“Fool’s Paradise” begins in a psychiatric hospital, where Day’s nameless character is being treated for an unknown disorder. His doctors say that he has roughly the mental capacity of a labrador retriever and is mysteriously unable to speak. There are therapies that could help him adjust, but the state won’t fund them, and the patient is kicked to the curb in Los Angeles to fend for himself.

After aimlessly wandering around LA, the patient is picked up by a high-powered movie producer (Liotta), who realizes he looks nearly identical to an eccentric British method actor who refuses to leave his trailer. The producer finishes making the movie using the patient as a stand-in, and a new star is born with the name of Latte Pronto.

This first act is endearing and whimsical but light on comedy. Liotta’s character, a caricature of a Hollywood producer, relies too much on tired tropes from previous movie industry satires. The highlight is Brody as one of Pronto’s co-stars, who hams it up as a corny, self-obsessed celebrity.

Pronto’s movie is a hit, and he catapults to the status of Hollywood superstardom. Along the way, he gets picked up by a down-on-his-luck publicist, played by Ken Jeong, who serves as Pronto’s voice in business deals and uses him to become a Hollywood power player.

Jeong’s character is the unlikely heart of the story and the only character with a substantive arc. The problem there is that Jeong’s character, a caffeine addicted ingrate with major self-esteem issues, is not fun to watch. He spends much of the film’s first hour whining and clawing towards power that he isn’t likable enough by the time the script needs him to do some emotional heavy lifting.

In a story where the protagonist can’t speak, it’s a hard sell to make his fast-talking wingman so obnoxious. The publicist’s rapid-fire dialogue makes up a large chunk of the script, and Jeong does a good job with what he’s given in the role. But like Liotta’s producer, the character himself is a stale retread of common targets in showbiz comedies, done better in films like “Broadway Danny Rose” decades ago.

After Pronto and the publicist team up, the story veers off into several lukewarm misadventures, including Pronto’s marriage to an A-lister, public fall from grace, alliance with a homeless former superhero movie star and a run for public office. None of these threads are given much dimension and are all unceremoniously dropped when the next one comes along.

“Fool’s Paradise” is an ambitious experiment, but it doesn’t have the necessary viciousness to work as a Hollywood satire in 2023, nor strong enough characters to be a compelling buddy comedy. It is evidence that even the best ingredients — a genius writer and director, talented cast, inspired production design and soulful music — can’t make a great meal if you try to follow 12 recipes at once.

Published on May 17, 2023 at 11:32 am