Suicide, as the song reminds us, may be painless, but it has also been played for laughs more in the last 20 years than one would have thought possible. Once romanticized as the final vestige of a sensitive soul, it’s now looked upon as a selfish act, the idea of martyrdom in hopes of obtaining an impossible depth. That was the prime joke at the heart of Heathers 20 years ago, and it’s once again revived, knowingly so, in director Bobcat Goldthwait‘s (if you’d told me 20 years ago I’d write that phrase, I’d still be laughing) dark farce World’s Greatest Dad.
Robin Williams is excellent (again, if you’d told me 20 years…etc.) as failed writer/husband/father Lance Clayton-an affable schlub who has been dealt some bad hands. The joker in the deck is his son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara, having a blast), a loathsome cretin so vulgar that when he eventually dies of autoerotic asphyxiation (google Michael Hutchence) you’re visibly relieved. Lance, who is a poetry teacher at Kyle’s high school, discovers the body and, after grieving, concocts a suicide note to explain his son’s demise. At first, when word of Kyle’s death becomes public nobody, including Lance’s pseudo-girlfriend Claire, really cares. However, once the suicide note is published in the high school paper, the fallacy of Kyle’s tortured psyche elevates him to Rimbaudian stature, which Lance ably cultivates to advance his own career.
The cast is uniformly terrific, with Williams having to carry the difficult role of a conflicted opportunist while still being likeable. It’s tricky, but he pulls it off, which indicates to me how much he’d prefer doing this sort of work, like Bill Murray, than the crimes against humanity he routinely tosses off as ‘family entertainment’. The film is dark, but not pitch black – I’d have liked to see the plot advance further down the rabbit hole than Goldthwait allows it, but my guess is he made the right decision. Restraint is not a word I’d have associated with the star of Hot To Trot. Recommended. – [DVD]
Comedy/Drama
Rated R
DVD Release Date: 12/10/09