One Mann’s Movies review of “Dolittle” (2020).
As this is primarily one for the kids, I’m giving the movie two ratings:
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating (adults):
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating (kids):
Certification:
US: PG. UK: PG.
With the words of Mark Kermode‘s review ringing in my ears (“It’s shockingly poor… and that’s the same in any language”) I was bracing myself when I went to see this latest incarnation of Hugh Lofting‘s famous animal-chatting character. And I have to agree that it is a shocking mess of a film, given $175 million was poured into this thing. But, and I say this cautiously without first-hand empirical evidence, I *think* this is a movie that kids in the 6 to 10 age range might fall in love with.
Parker and Stark, reunited as a shaggy Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jnr. (Source: 20th Century Fox).
The whale of a tale.
Doctor Dolittle (Robert Downey Jnr) – famed animal doctor, with the unique ability to communicate with any animal – is now holed up in his animal sanctuary, a recluse. His beloved wife – adventurer Lily – was lost at sea (in a cartoon sequence that could have just used the same clip from “Frozen”). He’s lost the will to practice; and almost lost the will to live.
Impinging on his morose life come two humans: Tommy Stubbings (Harry Collett), a reluctant hunter with a wounded squirrel, and Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado), daughter of the Queen of England. (We’ll quietly ignore the coincidence that, after what looks like several years of mourning, these two independently pitch up at Chez Dolittle within ten minutes of each other!).
For the Queen (the omnipresent Jessie Buckley) is dying, and noone (other than us viewers, let in on the deal) suspect foul play might be at work in the form of Lord Thomas Badgley (the ever-reliable Jim Broadbent) and the Queen’s old leech-loving doctor Blair Müdfly (a moustache-twiddling Michael Sheen).
Dolittle must engage in a perilous journey to find the only cure that will save both the Queen and his animal sanctuary – the fruit of the tree on a missing island that his long lost love was searching for.
Carmel Laniado does a great job in only her second feature. (Source: 20th Century Fox).
The talking elephant in the room.
Let’s start with the most obvious point first up. Robert Downey Jnr‘s Welsh accent is quite the most terrible, most preposterous, most unintelligible, most offensive (to the Welsh) attempt at an accent in a mainstream film in movie history. And that’s really saying something when you have Laurence Olivier‘s Jewish father from “The Jazz Singer” and Russell Crowe‘s English cum Irish cum Scottish cum Yugoslavian “Robin Hood” in the list. Why? Just why? Was it to distance this version from Rex Harrison‘s? (Since most younger movie goers will be going “Rex who?” at this point, this seems unlikely). It’s a wholly curious decision.
It turns RDj’s presence in the movie from being an asset to a liability.
For those of a young age. THIS is Rex Harrison in the 1967 original. (Source: 20th Century Fox).
Some genuinely funny lines.
As indicated above, I actually watched the Mark Kermode / Simon Mayo review of this one before writing this (something I don’t normally do) and learned the movie has had a tortuous history. Filmed in 2018 at enormous expense, the film completely bombed at test screenings so they brought in more script writers to make it funnier and did extensive additional filming.
I actually disagree with Professor Kermode that, even after the tweaks, that the film doesn’t have its funny moments. For there are a few points in the movie where I laughed out loud. A fly’s miraculous, if temporary, escape was one such moment. The duck laying an egg in fright, another.
However, these seem to stand out starkly in isolation as ‘the funny bits they inserted’. Much of the rest of the movie’s comedy falls painfully flat.
All aboard for adventure. Robert Downey Jnr and Harry Collett. (Source: 20th Century Fox).
Talent on display.
In terms of the acting, there are the obvious visual talents on show of Michael Sheen (doing a great English accent for a Welshman…. #irony), Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Joanna Page (blink and you’ll miss her) and Antonio Banderas, as the swashbuckling pirate king cum father-in-law.
But the end titles are an amazing array of “Ah!” moments as the vocal performances are revealed: Emma Thompson as the parrot; Rami Malek as the gorilla; John Cena as the polar bear; Kumail Nanjiani at the ostrich; Octavia Spencer at the duck; Tom Holland as the dog; Selena Gomez as the giraffe; Marion Cotillade as the fox, Frances de la Tour as a flatulent dragon and Ralph Fiennes as an evil tiger with mummy issues.
It’s a gift for future contestants on “Pointless”! (Too late for my efforts… still to air!).
Pain and lack of glory. Antonio Banderas as a father-in-law you don’t want to get on the wrong side of. (Source: 20th Century Fox).
It is, after all, a kid’s film.
There are a lot of poe-faced critics throwing brick-bats at this movie, and to a degree it’s deserved. They lavished $175 million on it, and it looked like it was going to be a thumping loss. (However, against all the odds, at the time of writing it has grossed north of $184 million. And it only opened yesterday in China. So although not stellar in the world of blockbuster movies it’s not going to be a studio-killer like “Heaven’s Gate”).
And I suspect there’s a good reason for that latent salvation. I think kids are loving this movie, driving repeat viewings and unexpected word of mouth. It is certainly a family friendly experience. There are no truly terrifying scenes that will haunt young children. A dragon-induced death, not seen on screen, is – notwithstanding the intro Frozen-esque cartoon sequence – the only obvious one in the movie and is (as above) played for laughs. There are fantastical sets and landscapes. Performing whales. A happy-ending (albeit not the one I was cynically expecting). And an extended dragon-farting scene, and what kids are not going to love that!!
Summary
Directed by Stephen Gaghan (“Syriana”, but better known as a writer than a director) it’s a jumbled messy bear of a movie but is in no way an unpleasant watch. I would take a grandkid along to watch this again. It even has some nuggets of gold hidden within its matted coat.
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEf412bSPLs. (You only get one carefully chosen snippet of Downey’s Welsh!).
