World's Greatest Dad

Thank god people give Robin Williams dramatic roles. You know the last at least somewhat respectable comedy he did (as a lead)? Or was at least memorable? Patch Adams in 1998. You know what dramas he's given us since then? One Hour Photo, Insomnia, The Final Cut, Man of the Year, and now World's Greatest Dad. Sure, several of those movies weren't necessarily great, but Williams did such an outstanding job in them that you have to wonder why he doesn't just stick to them from now on.

But has Williams finally found the right fit? Has he finally given an outstanding performance in a movie that was just as good? Honestly, I'm a little torn on this one, so we'll see if I've decided by the end of the review.

The movie follows Lance Clayton (Williams), father of a possible sociopath obsessed with porn named Andrew (Daryl Sabara from Spy Kids) who absolutely hates him. Lance writes novels, but has never been published. He teaches poetry at his son's high school, but the enrollment is so low it's close to being pulled. He's dating one of the other teachers named Claire (Alexie Gilmore), but they have to keep their relationship a secret being two teachers, and every time they're supposed to go out she always seems busy. On top of that, there's another teacher at the school named Mike (Henry Simmons) who seems to have all of the success and popularity that Lance dreams of, and even seems to be enamored of Claire. In short, life kind of sucks for him.

Then tragedy strikes when his son dies in a rather embarrassing way. To at least try and do the right thing, Lance makes it look like Andrew wrote a suicide note and then hung himself. Eventually Lance returns to work, but word of this rather eloquent suicide note has spread, and soon a copy is in the school newspaper. Suddenly the entire school is completely infatuated with their own idea or version of this kid who they never really knew, making Lance as popular as he always wanted to be.

From there things spiral as Lance feeds the flame, giving out little lies time and again to try and keep up this facade that his son was a good person, while also reaping the benefits for himself to get his writing out there. The entire movie is really one big satire on the nature of popularity, especially after death, while also struggling with the moral principles behind what happens when a big lie turns out to help a lot more than it hurts. The entire philosophy behind this film is absolutely brilliant, and is tackled in a very new and different way from any other film I've seen. So what's got me caught up?

The acting. Besides Robin Williams, and surprisingly Daryl Sabara, all of the performances felt very stilted and kind of out of place. Claire was almost cartoony in her ditziness as the wishy washy girlfriend, the rival teacher's performance started out great as the popular great guy but suddenly became overly forced when that changed, and Andrew's one and only friend was very quiet and delivered all of his lines in an almost wooden manner. The various students of the school also just felt like complete caricatures/stereotypes, and while the goth girl at least reveled in that the others just felt a little forced, and frankly poorly written.

On the other hand...I could be completely missing the point. It could be that the roles were meant to be that way as part of the message this film was delivering, which I wouldn't be surprised about. Nonetheless, there's a very fine line between satirizing a stupid character, and just having a stupid character.

That being said, honestly, to me it doesn't matter either way because the rest of the movie makes up for any acting discrepancies. Hell, just Robin Williams' performance makes up for it. The transformations Lance goes through are subtle to say the least, but Williams handles it deftly, letting the most minor changes in his facial expression do the acting for him. I honestly don't know how he did it so well, but there's a point where he finally decides that what's happening is not right, and you can tell from the slightest change in his smile right when it happens. There's no special dialogue, there's no music change, nothing to point out that the film just hit it's final act, except for him. It's a masterful performance that just points out how badly he needs a new agent who will steer him away from things like RV and License to Wed and get him the really solid dramatic roles.

But Williams is really just a great actor delivering a great performance in a great movie that dares to look at some very unconventional themes in a very unique way. It deals intelligently with both its humor and its drama, and the sometimes uncomfortable mix of the two. It brings to the table people who are neither good nor evil, but who constantly deal with both in themselves and others. In short, I made up my mind. It has its problems, but I think Williams finally did find a great movie.

World's Greatest Dad gets a 9/10.