Sometimes, as with “Coneheads,” “Wayne’s World,” or “It’s Pat” the translation is literal: those films were feature length versions of their sketch routines. (One of them was even enjoyable - guess which one!). Other times the idea of a sketch is present in the end result, but changed somehow; for example, Adam Sandler’s title character from “Little Nicky” shares a voice with his nerdy concert reviewer Gil from Weekend Update. “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” is that film for Will Ferrell: it’s the closest he’ll ever come to playing George W. Bush on screen.
In “Talladega,” Ferrell plays Ricky Bobby, a W-esque NASCAR driver. Most of the Bush character traits are present in Ricky Bobby: the accent, the glassy countenance, the single-minded determination, the seeming lack of I.Q., and the fascination with the show “Walker: Texas Ranger”… All that seems missing is the little goat laugh, and he’d be a match for the Prez.
The problem with “Talladega” is that outside of the Bush-like qualities, there really isn’t a lot going on with Ricky Bobby. He’s an egotist and a bit of a loose cannon, but beyond that there really isn’t much of a point to the character, other than to run through the gags provided by the script. Some of those bits are very funny (Cougar in the Car, “Help me Tom Cruise”, etc…)- but if that’s all you want, and you’ve already seen the trailer, you may as well save your money and just catch the ads again.
That’s not to say the film doesn’t have it’s strong points- John C. Reilly is particularly good as Ricky’s life-long friend and eventual rival Cal Naughton Jr. What I really liked about Reilly’s performance is that he barely ever registers any kind of negativity in Cal, even during the periods when he and Ricky are feuding. There’s one terrific phone scene between the two of them that is so cordial, that they have to keep reminding themselves that they don’t like each other anymore. It’s as if the characters know that they should be fighting, but are too dim to follow through on it.
If the film were confined to their conflict, there might’ve been a chance for the film to develop the characters into something unique. However, the screenplay keeps hurtling plot points at Ricky Bobby. Besides the beef with Cal, he is competing with his French counterpart Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen), annoying his team sponsor Larry Dennit Jr. (Greg Germann), mediating between his strict mother (Jane Lynch) and wild sons (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell), navigating relationships with his wife (Leslie Bibb) and manager (Amy Adams), and reconciling with his estranged father (Gary Cole).
With all these extraneous details floating around, it seems only natural that Ricky Bobby would get the short end of the stick. That’s unfortunate because ultimately the lack of character development only exacerbates the problems with the script. If I cared more for Ricky Bobby, I might not have wondered why he still has a Dennit racing suit on after they’ve fired him, or how he can suddenly be entered into a race at the last minute, or why the characters speak in such stilted expository sentences, or any number of other issues one might have with the story.
It’s unfortunate because there does seem to be some good material here. And, this type of film can work- one needs only look at Ferrell and McKay’s last effort “Anchorman” to see that. There was a film that successfully married a broad character with an engaging story. Hopefully their next project will be more “Anchorman” and less “Little Nicky.”
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