As an aspiring infomercial fitness-life coach-messiah playing God over a summer camp, Stiller goes out there, without fear of overplaying it, and it might be his best performance -- I think better than the variation in Dodgeball. Maybe the movie needs this hock of ham, since before Stiller's character takes over, the
camp is a beloved dream vacation for kids -- motorized go-carts and track included -- who all happen to be fat and still won't ever feel deprived thanks to their abundant candy stashes. They had fun there because no one felt judged. This is sensitive and makes for a great family movie, even when the kids don't get the best jokes. I guess since I'm not 12, it's weird for me to see that all the kids harbor only goodwill toward each other, and only goodwill toward anyone except when they're being effed with by a psycho or jerk. Not that I'm asking for a Lord of the Flies where everyone is as fat as Piggy, but the movies Apatow wrote for adults, in suspended adolescence, didn't divide the world into good guys and villains, which made you feel you were being lied to before. -- Why am I being serious about this? It's a movie about a fat camp.
July 10, 2010
