From the moment the theater goes dark, and Will Ferrell's silly, sultry R&B song begins playing over the opening credits of Semi-Pro, I am smiling. Not for a single moment in the movie's 90 minute runtime do I stop smiling. Unless, of course, I start laughing out loud - which I do frequently. And so do a lot of people in the audience. Everyone is having a good time.
It is not often I consider a film's star to be the creative force behind the picture. Not often meaning Never. Except for comedies. Comedies sink or swim based on who the hell is creating the funny (the writer) and who the hell we are watching trying to be funny (the actor). The best comedy directors are usually guys who just set the camera up and don't fuck with it too much: Buster Keaton, Preston Sturges, Woody Allen, Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow.
Comedies are the hardest thing to critique and analyze. They are either funny or not funny. One laughs or does not laugh. And this is always a subjective reaction, a totally personal experience. Trying to convince someone that something is funny is like asking to be a avoided from that day forward. There is no logic or tactic that I can employ that will convince anyone that Freddy Got Fingered is actually a really solid picture, or that my allegiance to Better Off Dead is not purely nostalgia-based. Nothing.
But I can talk about why this Will Ferrell picture works, I think, as a comedy. It is the same reason many of Ferrell's comedies succeed. Ferrell is very aware of space: the set, the clothes, the haircuts, the light, the environment. In the Will Ferrell films that work, Ferrell approaches the project in such a way that first and foremost everything has to look funny. Before a single line is uttered or a step taken the audience must be able to look at the screen and see some funny.
Ron Burgundy looks funny. NASCAR suits are funny. Man-elves are funny. No doubt about it. If the audience knows nothing about what the hell is going on they can look at the screen and, at the very least, see something amusing. Look at the faux-wood that walls Ron Burgundy's office. Or the piles of fast food stacked on Ricky Bobby's dining room table. The poster for Blades of Glory? Funny. Disturbing? Sure. But still funny.
Just to keep things on the up-and-up, I gotta admit I haven't seen all of Ferrell's films where he seemed to be just a guy-for-hire, like Bewitched or Kicking And Screaming. Though Stranger Than Fiction makes perfect use of the Ferrell persona.
In Semi-Pro, Farrell and company really go out of their way to pack the frame with amusing details. It's like watching a Wes Anderson film without having the burden of wondering if what has been packed into the frame is lifted from The New Yorker or from National Geographic (or some random French New Wave film). And to Farrell's credit, as well as director Kent Alterman (who has a strange resume as an executive producer that is worth checking out), that none of these sight-based details are necessarily distracting. They just, kind of, keep it fun.
Except when it's time for the site gags to be the focus. At one point Farrell's Jackie Moon is leading his team, The Michigan Tropics, in a rehearsal of their half-time show while dressed as cartoonish sea creatures. It is a moment ripe with humor, which works on several levels. Primarily, it looks ridiculous. Secondly, Ferrell's Moon is also the team's owner. Thirdly, it is one of the few dramatically charged moments in the film, as Woody Harrelson's singularly-named Monix asks to take over as the team's coach (but concedes he's fine with just being the offensive and defensive coordinator).
The entire picture is characterized by a similar commitment to maximizing each scene visually, dramatically and comically. And of course, Will Ferrell is everyone's favorite mainstream absurdist, making the most commonplace scenes and dialogue exchanges feel weird, odd, and amusingly uncomfortable.
While some people may be tired of Farrell's sports-fixation, it is not really worth criticizing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. For the time being it's what Farrell does. With this summer's Step Brothers, another Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights) collaboration, maybe he'll leave the sports arena behind. Until then, game on.