LARGER THAN LIFE (57)

Directed by: Howard Franklin

Starring: Bill Murray, Matthew McConaughey, Linda Fiorentino

The Pitch: A motivational speaker inherits an elephant from his estranged father, a former circus clown..

Theo Sez: Wonderful moments (for Bill Murray fans), but fatally inconsistent : it feels a bit like someone started out to make an acidic comedy and decided to change it into a kids' movie halfway through. The early scenes are the best, giving the star ample scope for what he does best, those little barbs of deadpan blandness laced with barely-repressed exasperation : that this irredeemable cynic should be a motivational speaker is almost as good a joke as the drivel he spouts, hilariously poker-faced, during his lectures - nobody else could've put the same spin on a line like "Wouldn't you rather work with people than sugar cubes?". It's not a bad idea to place him among the hicks and small-timers of the eternally exasperating heartland - a place where you might stumble on the annual congress of the American Sand and Gravel Association, or hear a country-music song entitled "You Think I'm Psycho, Don't You Mama?" - but the film just isn't interested in striking sparks : like Franklin's THE PUBLIC EYE it's low-key, rather old-fashioned and just a little too nice, its low-tech charm most evident in its affection for the old circus performers - a sword- swallower, a tattooed lady - who drift in and out of it. Its strengths may be summarised in the fact that (cf. the odious likes of OPERATION DUMBO DROP) it contains not a single elephant-poo joke ; its weaknesses in the fact that it leaves a whole bunch of edgy, sarcastic comic actors - Fiorentino, Janeane Garofalo, Jeremy Piven - woefully underused, preferring to go with McConaughey in an indescribably annoying, ultra-broad performance as a psychotic hillbilly. Imagine Jeffrey Combs doing Jim Carrey - and failing miserably ; and you're still not close.