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We've always had a vaguely favourable but generally ambivalent feeling about Ben Stiller. Any positive impressions were linked mostly to his ongoing association with Janeane Garofalo and the generally good things we've heard about the now-defunct The Ben Stiller Show, which, living in Canada, we've never actually seen. (These positives being almost, but not quite, cancelled out by the fact that (a) he's another Hollywood brat made good and (b) Reality Bites, well, did.) But a recent series of semi-coincidental events, however, upgraded our vaguely favourable ambivalence to outright appreciation. Allow us to elaborate.
It all centred on our recent viewing of Keeping the Faith, a surprisingly not-bad romantic comedy starring Stiller, Jenna Elfman and Edward Norton, who also directed. One of the previews was for Me, Myself and Irene, the new Farrelly brothers film starring Jim Carrey. Which, we noted during the not-surprisingly bad trailer, makes Me, Myself and Irene a Jim Carrey Film. Because any film with Jim Carrey -- a comic genius, yes, sure, we admit it -- invariably becomes a Jim Carrey Film. Because that's what Jim Carrey does: He takes your film and injects his own, immutable 'comic genius' shtick: rubber faces, pratfalls, manic gesticulation, and the rest.
Which started us thinking about how good Ben Stiller was in There's Something About Mary, the Farrelly's reputation-making hit. (And a movie that, on second viewing, is entirely devoid of actual mirth, with the exception of Stiller's mispronunciation of "Brett Favre.") It's unlikely that anyone walked out of that film thinking, "Boy, that Ben Stiller was really funny." Because Ben Stiller managed to be really funny, while still allowing a movie to exist around him. He was the anchor of the film, compared to, say, Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy. In that film, directed, as it happens, by Ben Stiller, Carrey is not so much an anchor as a wrecking ball -- swinging full-tilt into the proceedings, making a huge fuss and a lot of noise, and wiping out everything in his path.
So that was Ben Stiller Appreciation Moment #1.
Then, while watching Keeping the Faith, we were reminded how Edward Norton -- a great actor, yes, sure, no argument here -- tends to equate "comic acting" with "imitating Woody Allen." (A not-uncommon affliction among young actors who've worked with Allen, as Norton did in Everyone Says I Love You.) And watching Norton's grab bag of trademark Woody Allen comic neuroses -- tics, stutters, sighs, and shrugs -- played off against Stiller, it struck us that, if Allen was the quintessential Jewish comedian of the '70s, Ben Stiller is quietly crafting an updated version for the '90s (or, we guess, the twenty-first century): Neurotic, yes, but more arrogant, more tightly-wound, much more angry, and often driven to speechless grimacing by the absurdity of the world and, moreover, the absurdity of himself in it.
So that was Ben Stiller Appreciation Moment #2.
THEN we started thinking that Stiller -- who rarely, if ever, waltzes away with a movie --has been a central if understated part of a lot of very funny movies: Flirting With Disaster, for example, or (in a very different way) Your Friends and Neighbors. And he was the funniest part of a lot of pretty unfunny movies, like The Zero Effect, and, ironically, the Jim Carrey Film he directed, The Cable Guy (in which he cameos as parent-slaying twins Stan and Sam Sweet, and utters the film's funniest line: "Asian. They were definitely Asian"). And, in the very watchable Permanent Midnight, he proved that he can carry one of those indie films where the main character appears in every single scene. And be pretty funny doing it.
And that was Ben Stiller Appreciation Moment #3.
(Of course, the other great thing about Ben Stiller is that he's very likely the oddest-looking good-looking man in all of Hollywood. His reviews often describe his performances as "edgy" and "jumpy" and even "rabbity," which is due partly to his comedic style, but also partly, we asset, to the fact that he looks a bit like that simian man-child who used to hang around with Holly and Will on "Land of the Lost." But in a good way. We're not saying he's not good-looking. Just that he's good-looking in a way that also calls to mind a simian man-child. Call this Ben Stiller Appreciation Moment #3.5.)
So what does it all mean? We're not sure, really, but we suspect it means this: Ben Stiller is developing into a very good comic actor, which is very different from being a comedian who acts, even a very good comedian who acts. The difference being that, if you were going to be in a comedy, you'd probably want to be in one with Ben Stiller, because he would be funny and he'd let you be funny too. He'd even make you funnier. Whereas Jim Carrey (or Chris Tucker, or Eddie Murphy, or Adam Sandler) would be funny, and you'd be trampled underfoot.
Does this mean that Ben Stiller -- a great comic actor, yes, sure, we see it now -- deserves to be more famous? Well, he probably deserves something, but it's not more fame. Because then he might turn into Adam Sandler. And besides, he's pretty famous already. Just, we now think, for the wrong reasons.
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