Fool's Paradise

Fool’s Paradise doesn’t come close to clearing the self-imposed hurdle of matching a Chaplin classic or an Ashby satire. But it does sometimes work as a breezy comedy and a satire-lite of vacuous Hollywood, articulated tenfold by the modern Superhero Franchise Industrial Complex.

If Day has shown anything with Fool’s Paradise and the long road to get it made, it’s that he has passion and a vision, and a dedication to making a project that works for him. Fool’s Paradise might not work as well as it should, but fingers crossed that Day keeps at it.

A satire that’s neither sharp enough to make its industry skewering sting, nor sweet enough to compensate for its toothlessness.

It’s a relief when the talking/screeching version of Day has an accident and the silent version takes over. He manages the pratfalls and double-takes well enough. He’s no Keaton, Chaplin, Begnini, Sellers or David Hyde Pierce, to name some of the great physical comics of ancient and recent vintage. There’s no shame in that.

There’s something grudgingly admirable about the voluble star essentially spending an entire film doing reactions. But it’s a disastrous move in a Hollywood satire that already needs to be more than a grab bag of jokes.

The film sprints past its targets, dealing glancing blows to subjects that have already been obliterated by decades’ worth of Tinseltown parodies.

Overblown caricatures and stale jokes about “don’t you know who I am?!” and going to see his wife’s shaman feel about as empty as a finished cup of coffee, and unfortunately, this movie has nothing else to offer for a refill.

I reallyhad high hopes for it as I enjoyed Charlie Day's acting and also him writing for Sunny together with others from cast. While this had plenty of nice moments, overall it more felt like it is a bit stupid. Like even for me as a fan it felt like it was not that good. Really sad to see given how much I read Charlie Day involved and wrote the script for.

A decent story with some heart, about a lovable yet clueless and barely functional mute and homeless man who somehow gets caught by the gears of the Hollywood machine. Ray Liotta was great in this, although he is in the first half of the film really. I was also pleasantly surprised by the character of Ken Jeong, who turned out to be a big part of the story. But ultimately, something in the film does not quite work correctly.

Cast is strong, a pretty good string of comedic actors and just about every recurring Always Sunny actor you can think of, but this is so directionless. Transitions, plot, and logic follow no discernable path. Also, we are years beyond when every one realized that Ken Jeong does not need to be given leading roles and unlimited time to cook.

It’s not good. It’s got some good moments, but not nearly enough. It feels pretty empty and pointless.

It's not hard to understand the satire of its approach, Charlie Day is very basic in that regard, but the mordacity is no substitute for the flaws, the lousy narrative pacing, its enormous plot incoherence and how empty it feels in its closing. So, by general consensus, Day's debut in the director's chair is an insufferable and mostly dull comedy. This sure as hell ain't no masterpiece of the genre. It should be made clear that Fools Paradise can't brag about anything original, much less profound. Not that I want to imply that it should have been treated with more seriousness, but I don't think that everything has to work based on wanting to make the audience laugh with the "occurrences" of his characters. And Charlie Day's problem is that he handles himself that way as an actor and, therefore, seems to have believed that he would have to translate his work doctrine to the actors who were going to be under his orders. Satire should be pointed and humorous, here both things are replaced by clichés and absurd situations. It is unconvincing and when it concludes the taste is immensely disappointing.