Is Ferrell Finished?

I went to see Step Brothers recently and was sorely disappointed. I know Will Ferrell’s movies are always slightly unbelievable, but they always have that slight touch of the screwball which allows for this. Step Brothers was unbelievable and frankly, embarrassing. It would be hard for Ferrell to top the surreal genius of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, but it appears as though he is not trying any more. It also appears that he is dragging John C. Reilly down with him.

There was a point, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when audiences loved the tongue in cheek portrayals of the everyday that Ferrell’s films appeared to delight in. Ferrell became known for characters that appeared innocent, but were actually ignorant of social mores and popular culture. These characters ranged from Frank “the Tank” Ricard in Old School to Chazz Michael Michaels in Blades of Glory. Although these characters stretched audience credulity and the films storylines were often absurd, this was why we loved Ferrell. He appeared to be a child stumbling through life in the body of a grown man.

But as Ferrell himself as got older, his man-child act is no longer as endearing as it was. I Ferrell’s character in Step Brothers, Brennan Huff, was hard to relate to, he appeared to be his own worst enemy and showed no interest in trying to get out of the rut that he had somehow found himself in. Instead of acting like an adult, Brennan seemed to have stopped maturing at around age 12 and was perfectly content to remain at that age, wearing Chewbacca masks and constructing bunk beds from two double beds. I will grant that there were some funny moments in the film, but overall I came out of the cinema faintly embarrassed.

Ferrell appeared to try to move away from the stoner comedy with Stranger than Fiction (2006) which balanced out his other film of 2006, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Stranger than Fiction was a new turn for Ferrell. His character, Harold Crick, was a man who was vaguely unhappy with his job as an auditor for the IRS, but showed no willingness to change it until a slightly surreal chain of events are set in motion from Crick’s realisation that his life is being narrated by Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a woman who is writing a book about a character that just so happens to be named Harold Crick. Ferrell managed to understate Crick, and for the first time since he shot to stardom with Old School, create a character that was endearing for his normality as opposed to his status as an oddball. Ian Freer, of Empire Magazine says; “Avoiding Frat Pack-style schtick, Will Ferrell is initially unnerving as the buttoned-down automaton, but he successfully nails each of Crick’s emotional states (bewilderment, anxiety, uplifting liberation) as the accountant’s existence blossoms and he starts to live the life he wants”.

Although Stranger than Fiction’s ending was almost universally denounced as annoying, it was a film which allowed Ferrell to show off his talents as a “straight” actor, and it appeared that from here he was going to move from farce to if not tragedy, then at least tragic-comedy. This did not happen. Ferrell followed up Stranger than Fiction with Talladega Nights, which followed on from the Anchorman school of comedy. Talladega Nights appeared to herald Ferrell’s descent into the farcical sports movie. Talladega Nights was followed by ice skating movie, Blades of Glory in 2007 and Semi Pro, a film about basketball in 2008. Ferrell had already tackled the idea of soccer in Kicking and Screaming (2005).

What is most disturbing about Ferrell’s inability to move on from the types of roles that made him famous, however, is the fact that he appears to be taking John C. Reilly down with him. John C. Reilly first came to fame in Brian DePalma’s Vietnam War drama Casualties of War (1989) and worked steadily as a character actor in films such as Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999) and Chicago (2002). Reilly was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for his portrayal of Amos Hart in Chicago. Reilly was not well known for his comic roles, although he played the Sasquatch in Tenacious D’s HBO show in 1999 and made a cameo in Anger Management (2003), until he paired with Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights. Reilly’s character, Cal Naughton Jr, was the equally idiotic sidekick to Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby. The two bounced off each other well, and Reilly got to show off his comedic timing, as Dan Jolin of Empire Magazine says; “John C. Reilly proves himself a ‘straight’ actor with surprising comedy-improvisational talents”.

Sadly, John C. Reilly does not seem to know when to leave well enough alone. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story attempted to parody the rock biopic which has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity with films such as The Doors (1991), Ray (2004) and Walk the Line (2005) and while the film managed, as Damon Wise of Empire Magazine said, to “put a ten-megaton bomb under the clichéd rock biopic”, somehow, the bomb managed not to go off. After Walk Hard received mixed reviews, Reilly delved further into comedy, rather than return to the realm of offbeat character acting which he was known for.

Reilly once again paired up with Will Ferrell in Step Brothers. Reilly did not appear to be aware that this film was a total misfire. The issue of why these men, Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly), never left home is barely touched on, instead the film shies away from social comment and tries very hard to make the audience laugh. It is precisely this struggle to create humour that works against the film and kills any spontaneous laughter, as the audience almost feels like they are waiting for the next joke, a joke that rarely lives up to its build up.

Ferrell also must realise that he has spawned a new generation of actors who are following in his footsteps, specifically, Seth Rogen. Rogen rose to fame in a similar way to Ferrell – through memorable cameos and small parts in films such as Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005). Rogen shot to fame with Knocked Up (2007) and continued to rise with the self-penned Superbad (2007). Unlike Ferrell, however, it appears that Rogen is conscious of being typecast and in order to avoid this, he is making conscious decisions that steer him clear of characters and films similar to those that he has already done.

Ferrell needs to take a leaf from Rogen’s book and realise that he is stereotyping himself with comedic characters that do not always work. Anchorman worked because of its hyper realistic setting in a gender biased newsroom and because no one knew what to expect from a film with Ferrell in the leading role. Now we do know what Ferrell can do, and he is simply not doing it. The remake of Land of the Lost is Ferrell’s next film due to be released. After that, he needs to sit down, work out how to engage audiences who are bored of his man-child act and tighten his grip on comedy, a grip that has been steadily loosening since Anchorman.