Bottle Shock writer/director Randall Miller’s twisty black comedy is a little too clever for it’s own good, but thanks to an offbeat cast, including Shock players Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman and Eliza Dushku, it at least has more personality than that breezy ode to California wineries.

Rickman plays a philandering jerk of a chemist who wins the Nobel Prize and rubs that fact in everyone’s faces, including that of his PhD-aspiring son (Bryan Greenberg). Craziness ensues after the kid is abducted by the disgruntled offspring (Shawn Hatosy) of a late Rickman rival.

My main problem here is that Miller, who long ago helmed comedies like Class Act and Houseguest, tries too hard to make the film offbeat and edgy. He clutters it up with annoying quick zooms and pans, unpleasant violence and the kind of electronic music that announces something clever is about to happen. Not to mention the pretentious way he uses cannibalism as a metaphor for the human condition.

Yet the cast, particularly Rickman and Pullman, makes it entertaining. The way Rickman’s ego-ridden prick scoffs at the mere mention of call waiting is especially funny, as is the tactic used by Mary Steenburgen, as Rickman’s forensic scientist wife, to shoo away an annoying TV reporter. As a cop with a thing for Steenburgen, Pullman, as usual, emits a nice, easy measure of oddball energy.

And Miller does devise an admittedly nifty way for Hatosy (Outside Providence) to steal away with Rickman’s ransom. It involves a mall and Mini-Coopers and is the film’s best scene. The bite-size car figures in later on in a character’s ironic demise.

I do wish, though, that Dushku had been used as more than just extremely sexy window dressing in playing Greenberg’s mentally unstable love interest. Not that I mind seeing her wearing next to nothing. But after having seen her play tough, capable characters before (like on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer), her small, weak role here feels like a big step back.

So for better examples of this kind of black comedy, you should check out flicks like Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle; 1994), Fargo (Coen Brothers; 1996) or even the more mainstream Ruthless People (Zucker Brothers; 1986).

Comedy/Crime/Drama/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/10/09

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