..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Week Seven 2008
Tonight, Hancock Comes
(Spoiler-Free Review)

Essentially, you know most of the first two acts of this film from the ads and trailer.  So this is a bit of an odd bird of a review.  The majority of the conversation – and about 98% of the negativity – around this film comes from the third act, when the movie gets interesting (and “interesting”) and finally comes to a close with most of the expectations of the first two acts shockingly intact.

So… this spoiler-free review is pretty much going to focus on the first hour of the movie… and the spoiler review will be there when you are ready for the rest.

Hancock is very much in the spirit of Iron Man, from earlier this summer.  Our hero is an anti-hero… drunk, smug, angry, selfish, and powerful.  But unlike Tony Stark, his story starts to turn not when he is beaten into a change of perspective but because there is something going on inside of him that is clearly aware of an ambivalence about his behavior.  Even as he “saves the day” and screws up massively in the process, causing tens of millions in damage as he “helps,” one gets the feeling in the audience that he is a bit of a fuck-up, but also a bit willful about being lazy and missing the mark, like a teenager who has grown into the body of an adult but who hasn’t gotten over the itchy need to show everyone that now “I am a man!” 

Just thinking about one of Hancock's destructive take-offs (destroying a bus bench and leaving a massive hole in the cement it was screwed into) or landings (leaving car-sized holes in streets)… can anyone who has dealt with a brooding teen male be unable to imagine that kid taking off and landing exactly like that.  “Stop playing with the X-Box and save that damned busload of children!”  “Damn it!  Why are you always interrupting me before I get to the next level!”  SLAMMM… through the roof… another destroyed TV set…

Truth is, one of the things I missed in the movie was any real effort by Hancock when he felt even a little bad about breaking stuff to put it back together.  You know, kick all the rubble back in the hole… pick up some of the debris… something like that.  But like most teenagers, they will leave stuff just anyway… out of sight, out of mind.

The transition for Hancock begins when he saves one man, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), who is a PR man who is not very good at his job.  It turns out that in spite of the business he has chosen, he actually wants to save the world, not just convince people that he does.  As a result, Hancock immediately becomes his new project, a super-lost-puppy into whom Ray feels he has insight. 

Ray brings Hancock home… or vice versa… and so begins the Henry Higgins-ing of the hard-edged, super-powered Eliza Doolittle.  There is an immediate comfort between Ray’s young son and Hancock. Just as immediately, it is clear that Ray’s wife, Mary, is not comfortable with this guy in her house.  Hiring Charlize Theron to play “The Wife” is a bit like watching and episode of Law & Order and seeing a familiar face from TV or stage wander in and out of the first act while the cops have the story all wrong.  You’re really trying to figure out what she is doing there.

The story continues… Hancock agrees to be incarcerated as Ray plots to turn his image, really selling Hancock on getting past the pain of being disliked for all his “save the day” heroics.  Again, this is kind of a classic dramatic idea… very My Bodyguard, as the little kid not only gets protected, but finds the heart of the not-so-gentle giant in the process. 

The thing that is so compelling about Hancock through this part of the film is that Hancock has the feel of “one of us” given these kinds of powers… and that part has been pretty much universally praised as being entertaining as hell.  Ironically, the “I am alone here” speech you’ve seen in the marketing materials is part of a somewhat cynical, prepped speech before he goes into jail.  But Will Smith’s performance makes it clear that he is reading a speech… and actually believing it… almost freed to feel by the artificial nature of what he has been given to read. 

It is a key element to this whole movie that Ray is right about Hancock, from start to finish.  He sees what no one else really can.  It is his love, which is oddly free of judgment – even when he is criticizing – that moves Hancock towards his better self.  And this becomes the theme of the entire film… the power of love and the power of self-sacrifice and self-awareness.

Another interesting element is the anticipation of what Hancock will actually do when he is “saving the day.”  His choices are often unexpected, even to himself.  And they are often emotionally driven.  His mood has a lot to do with how he makes choices.  And faced with a life in which apparent consequences are solely how others see you and how you see yourself, the choice not to indulge himself endlessly is an issue of nothing but his increasing maturity. 

So far, this summer has been defined, over and over, by boys maturing into men.  Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones IV (in part… the film’s weakest part), Wanted, and Kung-Fu Panda are all on this track… and now Hancock.  (Hellboy is, as a character, all about this journey as well.)  The Incredible Hulk is kind of in the middle of the process, as Bruce Banner is wallowing in denial and depression before coming to acceptance in the third act of that film.  Even You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is the story of a hyper-powerful man/boy who has to work hard to put his physical powers aside in order to get fulfillment (and to become a man) by doing good for others. 

Really, Hancock is by far the most thoughtful exploration of this issue… mostly in the third act… so that will have to wait for the other review.  But even in the earlier part of the film, I think that many of the people I have spoken to simply don’t choose to see the trees for the forest.   It is not unlike Speed Racer earlier this summer, where the visual hyperactivity seemed to distract even the smartest people from seeing how strong the message of familial love was in that story.  As Speed rebelled, following in the footsteps of his brother Rex, his father managed to learn the power of acceptance, and in the process saved his son by not forcing him to reject his family in order to prove his manhood.  Speed’s success was the success of his family… and the success of unconditional love.

Of course, the third act of Hancock tells us that unconditional love is not always that easy.  This is something Shakespeare and the Greeks also knew.  But more to come on that angle…

Spoiler Review... to come tonight...

May 16 Box Office Chart
Season's First Box Office Chart - 4/21/08

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