In the dire new Happy Madison movie Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star, obligatory love interest Christina Ricci describes herself as “banished” to a chintzy little diner where her dreams of being a big-time waitress died an unmourned death. It’s easy to see the actress behind the role: Ricci’s part here represents a seemingly permanent banishment from the A-list. It’s less a performance than an enduring embarrassment. Bucky Larson can’t even get the “arbitrary” part of the “arbitrary love interest” right; to its detriment, the film takes Ricci’s dreams of being a glamorous waitress so seriously that it throws off the story’s balance. Ditto her romantic relationship with a gawky overgrown child (Nick Swardson, who also co-wrote) with grotesquely small genitalia. Apparently no one told Ricci she was acting in a comedy, not a touching drama about a young woman overcoming a formative trauma to achieve her dreams.
