Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 04 September 2009 04:50
Williams delivers a scarily plausible portrait of a sad sack whose need for success is so great he doesn't hesitate to exploit his son's death for his own benefit.
One thing I'll say for Robin Williams: When he gets it right, he really gets it right. Why he so often gets it wrong is another story but one which need not concern us here, because in World's Greatest Dad, Williams delivers a scarily plausible portrait of a sad sack whose need for success is so great he doesn't hesitate to exploit his son's death for his own benefit.
Williams plays Lance Clayton, a failed writer, mediocre high school teacher and single father whose relationship with his son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is dysfunctional on a good day and goes downhill from there. Kyle is certainly no prize, even for a teenager: he's foul-mouthed and rude, failing in school, and seems to have no interests other than pornography. But he's just a kid, and Lance is sincerely trying in his ineffective way to connect with him.
Kyle's hobby is auto-erotic asphyxiation. Rather predictably, one day he miscalculates and accidentally kills himself. Lance successfully covers up the cause of death by making it appear a suicide by hanging, even fabricating a suicide note in which Kyle berates his fellow classmates for their insensitivity. When the note is published in the school paper Kyle becomes a sainted martyr and some of the glory gets reflected on Lance.
Enjoying the attention he receives as the bereaved father, Lance forges a journal which he attributes to Kyle. Classmates and teachers alike eat it up, leaving Lance caught in the ultimate writer's dilemma: He can't take credit for his only piece of writing which has ever connected with an audience. But otherwise his life is much improved: The principal starts treating him with respect, students want to take his classes, and the cute young art teacher Claire (Alexie Gilmore) who previously would only date him in secret quickly loses all her inhibitions. Lance even gets the ultimate reward of the fame-obsessed: a television appearance.
World's Greatest Dad is an unapologetically black comedy written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, who continues to enjoy shaking things up. (You may remember as the guy who set Jay Leno's guest chair on fire as well as the writer/director of Sleeping Dogs Lie and Shakes the Clown.) In World's Greatest Dad, Goldthwait adopts the form of a high school movie, music montages and all, to underscore his point that people don't necessarily grow up just because they grow older. The adults in World's Greatest Dad are as petty and status-obsessed as the kids and perhaps even more addicted to glurge, those sickly-sweet "true stories" meant to teach us lessons about life and love.
Goldthwait's writing is sharp and consistently funny and he keeps the story moving at a rapid clip. Casting is excellent with Sabara delivering a particularly scathing characterization of a kid with no redeeming qualities whatsoever; it's a relief that he dies off relatively early in the film. Henry Simmons is winning as a rival English instructor and suitor of Claire, Evan Martin brings depth to his role as Kyle's only friend (and the only one to question how the semi-literate Kyle could have delivered such polished writing), and Mitzi McCall adds another dimension to the film as Lance's hoarder neighbor. Bruce Hornsby even turns up as himself.
Not every aspect of World's Greatest Dad is convincing, and the conclusion feels particularly unmotivated. But like Robin Williams, when it's good, it's very good indeed. | Sarah Boslaugh