The Book of Rannells: Why Him? (2016, R)

Probably the best thing I can say about this movie is that it’s slightly less predictable than I thought it was going to be.  I remember seeing the previews for it and mainly thinking, “Why, Bryan Cranston, why?”  However, while I wouldn’t call it great, or even good, it’s not as bad as it looks.

Ned, a solid middle-America type, is extremely discomfited when he, his wife, and his son are invited to spend Christmas in California, meeting his college-age daughter’s older boyfriend, Laird.  Ned likely would’ve been predisposed against anyone his daughter is sleeping with, but Laird’s clear efforts to endear himself to Ned have anything but the desired result.  The more Ned sees of Laird, the more he wonders how his “little girl” could possible be into someone like this guy.

Laird hits some of the major notes that I expected from the trailers – he’s copiously-tattooed (something a straitlaced guy like Ned is bound to dislike) and vulgar, both in his general language and in his extreme openness about his and Cassie’s sex life.  But I’d assumed from the promos that Laird was something of a waster, and that’s far from true.  Instead, he’s a video-game mogul, a genius coder and eccentric multi-millionaire.  Ned is super uneasy in Laird’s world at large, with his microgastronomy chef, his smart toilet, and his holiday rager featuring “deconstructed eggnog,” and a good portion of the humor comes from the contrast between Ned’s square sensibilities and Laird’s lavish hipster exploits.

But despite surprising me a little, the film is pretty aggressively so-so.  It features a talented cast – among them Bryan Cranston and Megan Mullally – most likely doing it for the paycheck.  I wouldn’t say anyone is phoning it in, but there’s little of note.  The only actor really rising above the material and making it work is Keegan-Michael Key as Gustav, Laird’s estate manager.  Gustav is unabashedly weird and slavishly devoted to his job – from talking Ned through the operation of the smart toiler to fake-ambushing Laird in the name of practicing his self-defense skills, Gustav will do whatever is required of him.

I do have to mention that Laird is played by James Franco. As an actor, he didn’t make much of an impression on me in the Spider-Man trilogy, but I really enjoyed his work in 127 Hours. More recently, though, he’s of course been the subject of sexual harassment allegations, particularly surrounding his behavior with female students at a film school he started. He’s been accused of using his power to take advantage of aspiring actresses’ desire to further their careers, and that’s gross.

Andrew Rannells’s part is very small – I’d call it a cameo, but I’m not sure if he’s famous enough for that.  He plays Blaine Pederman, one of several friends of Laird’s who only appear in one significant scene at a party.  The point of the character is that he and his sister Missy (played by Casey Wilson) run a successful e-card company, which just so happens to be running Ned’s print shop out of business.  The main joke here is that Blaine and his sister are disturbingly close.

There are some amusing bits.  Rannells and Wilson have a good back-and-forth together (honing the comedic chemistry they’d later bring to Black Monday!) – I laughed at them matter-of-factly telling Laird, “Our mother didn’t breastfeed us,” “You know we had a wet nurse,” and there’s a silly shot of them grinding together at the party.  Personally, I think the two play the vibe between them pretty well.  There’s a fine line between “weirdly close for siblings” and “blatantly incestuous,” and they do a good job straddling it in their brief screentime.

Recommend?

In General – No.  Keegan-Michael Key is funny, but when my best compliment for the film is “not as bad as I thought it’d be,” that’s not worth it, particularly given Franco’s involvement.

Andrew Rannells – Naw.  There’s just not enough of him here to write home about.

Warnings

Tons of swearing, sexual content, drinking/drug use, and gross-out humor.