Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Fortunately, they're blessed by
having John C. Reilly, an endlessly nimble and endearing performer, to lead the
film through its rough patches. Reilly plays Dewey Cox, a Johnny Cash/Ray
Charles hybrid who found music on an Alabama farm after a tragedy robbed him of
a brother and his sense of smell. When his family gives him the boot, Dewey
runs off with his sweetheart (Kristen Wiig) and tries to make it as a musician,
all while siring the dozen or so children he'll go on to neglect. Before long,
Dewey's irrepressible genius finds the right ears—here, the trio of
Hasidic Jews who run the entertainment industry—and he rockets up the
charts in short order. But fame comes at a heavy price, as Dewey indulges in a
buffet of vices from which only a June Carter-like tour mate (Jenna Fischer)
can save him.

The filmmakers have cleverly
conceived Dewey as a musical chameleon of Bob Dylan-esque proportions, capable
of adapting his sound to suit any number of trends, including folk,
psychedelic, disco, the Beatles in their Maharishi days, and, funniest of all,
a Brian Wilson phase that incorporates every sound known to man on a single song.
And the fake hits are mostly inspired, especially "Duet," which is loaded with
entendre-filled lines like "In my dreams, you're blowing me… some kisses." With
a cast loaded with ringers from The Office, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, and other Apatow productions, Walk Hard offers a quantity of laughs that
few comedies could match, yet it's likely to leave viewers vaguely unsatisfied,
particularly when the closing minutes completely run out of steam. That's the
danger of spoofs: You're only as good as your last laugh.

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