Straight to DVD

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

I'm beginning to think that comedies aimed at those of us over 30 are no longer permitted in Hollywood without Judd Apatow's name attached. Certainly each one Whitney and I can agree to put in our Netflix queue these days seems to have his imprint on it. (Which, come to think of it, probably says more about us than about Hollywood.)

The latest, Walk Hard, stars John C. Reilly as Johnny Cash–esque music legend Dewey Cox. It follows dutifully in the footsteps of recent musician biopics like Walk the Line and Ray, poking fun each step of the way along the familiar journey. There's Cox's tragedy-laden childhood (he accidentally cuts his brother in half with a machete); the handicap he has to overcome (he lacks a sense of smell); his strained relationship with his father (whose catchphrase is "The wrong kid died!"); his meteoric rise to recording-industry success in the early days of rock-and-roll; his descent into drugs, failed marriages, and a horrible '70s variety show; and his final rehabilitation in old age, amid the American public's new appreciation of his career.

The script, by Apatow and director Jake Kasdan, also takes Cox through each phase of American music-industry history, including encounters with everyone from Elvis and Buddy Holly to the Beatles (played in amusingly hostile cameos by Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman) to, at Cox's lifetime-achievement-award ceremony, Jewel, Ghostface Killah, and Lyle Lovett (played by themselves). And Cox's songs, most written by some combination of Kasdan, Apatow, Reilly, and Dan Bern, offer up some of the movie's funniest moments—in particular the clever Dylan ripoff "Royal Jelly," a string of meaningless but deep-sounding non-sequiturs.

Reilly himself is outstanding in his first comedic lead. Stepping into a role similar to those usually played by his recent Talladega Nights costar, Will Ferrell, he's utterly convincing as the well-meaning dolt of a musician, and his comic timing is great. Heck, even his singing is impressive.

But somehow the parts of Walk Hard don't add up to a cohesive whole. The movie is so busy doing everything a biopic parody is supposed to—hitting every hackneyed plot point, tweaking every overblown bit of sentimentality—that it never takes off for itself. Part of the problem is that Kasdan and Apatow have given the film a split personality, unable to decide between realistic parody (à la Spinal Tap), where Reilly's performance and the songs reside; and over-the-top absurdist parody (think The Naked Gun), the preferred mode for most of the script and supporting cast (which includes SNL veterans Kristen Wiig, Chris Parnell, and Tim Meadows). The two approaches don't mesh well.

The result is often amusing, as the filmmakers tick each box on the musician-biopic checklist, and very occasionally hysterical—Reilly's breakdowns are something of a tour de force throughout. But it's not consistently laugh-out-loud funny. Which is, frankly, something a Judd Apatow movie is supposed to be—making Walk Hard something of a disappointment.