\There is a scene I've heard people criticize,"" Michael Showalter said of the cult hit ""Wet Hot American Summer"" in a recent interview with Newsweek. ""My character slips on a banana peel. Our joke is: We did a banana-peel joke. That's kind of an esoteric joke. It's a joke about comedy.""
A polarizing force in the world of comedy, Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain's offerings in ""Summer"" and the Stella comedy troupe have alternately alienated and amused audiences. The heart of the matter: What makes them funny? Even to the most ardent believers, the question is a Rubik's cube. At the very least, Showalter's directorial debut in ""The Baxter"" stands as a deconstruction of the brand of humor.
Although ""Summer"" proved a bold and over-the-top parody of the 1980s camp movie, ""The Baxter"" is subtler, blander and takes on the romantic comedy, which does not seem to be enough of a niche genre for Showalter's intentions.
However, for those intimately familiar with the source material, ""The Baxter"" will cleverly ring true. All the hallmarks are present-the cheesy music, the charming female lead, the loser friends at the bar, the offbeat best friend who offers undesired advice, the macho exes who aren't afraid to cry and especially Wain's turn as the creepy brother-in-law-to-be are all rendered smartly by Showalter.
The movie follows the life of Elliot Sherman (Showalter), a self-professed Baxter, a man who always loses out to the ex who had a change of heart and throws open church doors a split second before the vows are taken. Elliot missed the memo on romantic comedy clich??s. He loses out to that guy who wins the girl back in a speech at the end because he refuses to take his coat off and offer it to his shivering girlfriend. His reasoning? It's too big, but he will walk to his car and get her another.
Sherman's on-the-rocks relationship with his fiancee (Elizabeth Banks) is slowly overtaken by his burgeoning romance with Cecil Mills (Michelle Williams), the quirky temp-secretary who shares his love of reading the dictionary.
The weak point of the movie is not Showalter. His acting is a direct parody of other bland, sniveling male romantic comedy leads. In that respect, he succeeds admirably. His downfall is his quarry. Done to death, the romantic genre does not contain nearly as many targets as ""Summer,"" in which face-licking make-out sessions and impossibly long trips to town were bullseyes for the troupe. However, Black's and Wain's bits stand out among the rest, and a few lines shatter the subtlety that pervades the rest of the movie, eliciting uproarious laughter.
Low-key to a fault, ""The Baxter"" proves a noble experiment in the brand of humor that Showalter and Co. have perfected. It does not always succeed, but fans should find Showalter's directorial debut well worth their time.
