I have to admit I’m a Bill Murray fan--but I wasn’t always. It wasn’t until I saw Rushmore that it first donned on me that Murray is a tremendously gifted comic actor. Previously I’d only seen him in the same kind of goofy roles he played in Ghostbusters, Kingpin, Caddyshack, etc., but in Rushmore he wowed me in an entirely different kind of role. He was quiet and subtle and his performance was emotional, yet he was still very funny...in a very different way. I then went back and watched Groundhog Day again and was amazed at what a magnificent performance I hadn’t noticed before. The emotion and subtlety were there, but felt previously hidden behind my perception of Murray as just a silly guy. That day I became a solid Bill Murray fan and through watching his subsequent more “serious” works (Lost in Translation) I’ve gained a great respect for even his “silly” performances (The Man Who Knew Too Little).
The Man Who Knew Too Little, the last of Murray’s “goofy” performances, is a very silly film and also a quite funny one if you’re up for it. What do I mean by that? The movie reminded me a lot of the scene in The Pink Panther Strikes Again when Inspector Clouseau totally unknowingly foils all the world’s top assassins at Oktoberfest. If that, stretched out over the course of an entire feature-length film, sounds humorous to you, you are “up for it.” The Man Who Knew Too Little is a light, fun, silly movie that’s perfect fodder for a lazy weekend afternoon viewing.
Murray plays Wally Ritchie, an American who “works in the movie business” (at a Blockbuster Video in Iowa), who goes to visit his brother, Jimmy, in England to celebrate his birthday with him. Unfortunately, his brother (Peter Gallagher) has some very important businesspeople coming over to his house for dinner the night birthday boy Wally unexpectedly shows up. Since Wally probably won’t sit well with the others, Jimmy gives Wally a spur-of-the-moment birthday gift that will keep him out of the house for the evening. Knowing that Wally always wanted to be an actor, he signs him up for an experimental form of theater called “Theater of Life” wherein regular people voluntarily join up with actors out in the streets for an adventure that is meant to feel totally real. (In many ways, The Man Who Knew Too Little acts like an unofficial parody of David Fincher’s The Game, though, given the fact that The Game wasn’t particularly big at the box office and The Man Who Knew Too Little was released a mere two months later, I have to assume their similarities are just coincidental.) Wally’s told that he should answer a certain payphone and will receive his instructions and character information to begin his acting adventure. Of course, Wally answers the phone early and receives instructions meant for a real secret agent and wacky hijinks ensue.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
This movie is a play on a movie Alfred Hitchcock liked so much, he made it twice, "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
Also, compare Bill Murray's role in "Meatballs" with his later work, and you'll see the same sardonic detachment. And you only need to click up there for the trailer for his new movie with Wes Anderson. And I have to wait for it? I want it now, dammit!