Fool’s Paradise was one of those sad viewings. Being a big It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan, I couldn’t have been more excited to see Charlie Day directing his own feature film, knowing the prodigious talents the guy possesses. But all those talents and friendships with really funny people couldn’t save this movie. Sadly, Fool’s Paradise becomes its prophetic title, to my unhappy surprise.
Day is pulling quadruple duty here. Besides writing/directing, he’s also playing two roles in the movie. One is Sir Tom Bingsley: a method acting dickbag irritating his co stars Christiana Dior (Kate Beckinsale) and Chad Luxt (Adrien Brody) and his producer (the late Ray Liotta) on their Billy the Kid movie. Frustrated by Bingsley’s BS, the producer drives around and finds a nameless man (also Charlie Day) who doesn’t speak, but because “latte, pronto” is said around him all the time people like Lenny (Ken Jeong), the nameless man’s publicist, think his actual name is Latte Pronto. You’d think talking would be necessary to be an actor, but Latte’s pleasant nature and blank slate are more important in Hollywood, sending Latte Pronto on his “Star is Born” trajectory.
The concept of Fool’s Paradise might be funny to Charlie Day, but that central premise is the reason why the movie never works. This idea should have been a short, silent film, following Latte for 5-15 minutes as Day would have proven probably what he wanted to: that he could have been a contemporary of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin with his wonderful expressive face and antic behaviors. Instead, we get a bigger, longer story, making Day confront all the unanswerable questions his movie would prefer not to answer. The whole story revolves around the blank reactionary Latte with exactly one mystery to him (when will he talk) for an hour and a half. Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody and the rest of the cast end up becoming the stars of Fool’s Paradise because they actually drive the story forward. The result is this weird state where the movie revolves around an uninteresting character surrounded by more interesting characters in every scene, not exactly something you want. Plus, based on the way Day plays Latte, that uninteresting character’s closest comp is probably Forrest Gump, which really makes you feel uncomfortable when you’re supposed to be laughing at all these people taking advantage of someone they’re at this point intellectually superior to.
The clear point Day is trying to make is that Hollywood will speak for Latte, which Day hopes points a mirror straight back into Hollywood’s face. And with an R rating, Fool’s Paradise is set up for some prime skewering of an industry built around fame, power, and narcissism. The setups are all intriguing, but Day’s execution is mediocre at best most of the time, never quite ending scenes on a high or a razor sharp rebuke of the status quo. A great example is when Latte ends up on a porno shoot. The best joke in that scene happens in the middle, when the sweet innocent Latte is terrified by this very willing actress ready to have sex with him and should end avoiding her in increasingly hilarious ways with him running off the set. Instead, Day takes the joke one more half a beat, not nearly as funny, and ends the scene with the audience mildly amused instead of rolling on the floor. This neuters any punch the movie was going for, having the jokes end up like retreads from better films.
As is, the only real joy of Fool’s Paradise becomes a game of spot the cameo, as years of Always Sunny have made the likable day a friend to many famous funny people who come by for a scene or two to help out their buddy. Maybe what I learned here is Day is better when he doesn’t have all the creative control on something. That all those Sunny years have untethered his brain just enough from reality that he needs someone else there to help him out. So at this point, Fool’s Paradise is more swing and miss, not Chappie level Neill Blomkamp extinction event stuff. Prove me wrong someday, Charlie Day. I’ll be waiting.