The Jolly Green Giant, I presume
Cinema
Daniel Carey
AFTER the success of ‘Good Will Hunting’, the sky was the limit for director Gus van Sant. But he followed that up with a remake of ‘Psycho’ – not merely a modern re-imagining, but a movie with an identical script and set-up to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 version. Van Sant said he made the picture for those who hadn’t seen the original – “which,” critic Tom Shone observed, “rather presupposes that such creatures exist.”
Perhaps to those of a younger generation, never having seen a Shrek film is a comparably serious crime. So I might as well confess. Before last week’s trip to ‘Shrek Forever After’, I had not watched any of the movies in the franchise.
I’m told by Shrexperts (pardon the pun) that this fourth outing is the best since the original. It’s certainly coincided with an upturn in my cinematic fortunes, after a run of largely forgettable rubbish. Roll on the post-World Cup glut.
While the Shrek phenomenon had passed me by, I was familiar with Rumpelstiltskin, who makes an appearance here. The dwarf with the funny name forever making shady magical deals with unlikely get-out clauses is etched in my mind since childhood.
And so, it was with a certain amount of nostalgia that I watched the opening scene in Mike Mitchell’s latest motion picture. The King and Queen of Far Far Away (voiced by John Cleese and Julie Andrews) reach a deal with old Rumpelstiltskin: the lifting of their daughter’s curse in exchange for the kingdom. Just as the King is about to sign on the dotted line, a messenger brings news that Shrek has lifted the curse the old-fashioned way – with a kiss.
Cut to the present day, where Shrek (Mike Myers), now married to his beloved Fiona (Cameron Diaz) has become a tourist attraction and finds himself struggling with the demands of raising three children. “You used to be so fierce when you were a REAL ogre,” one man tells him. He flips at the kids’ birthday party and angrily describes himself as a ‘jolly green joke’.
Offered an ‘ogre for a day’ deal by Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), Shrek eagerly accepts, not realising that this Faustian pact means he has bartered away the day of his birth. Having briefly basked in the old familiar feeling of making people run away in fright, he suddenly finds himself in the Far Far Away equivalent of ‘Back To The Future Part II’. Rumpelstiltskin is an all-powerful Biff Tannon type, ogres are hunted down by witches, and since he was never born, Shrek has only a day to live. Unless…
Unless he can secure a kiss from Fiona, who in this alternate reality doesn’t know who he is and finds herself playing the role of Xena: Warrior Princess. It’s an interesting premise, and one that doesn’t involve prior knowledge of the previous films (helpful for that tiny minority of which I am part).
There are less of the post-modern, knowing references that (allegedly) besmirched earlier outings, and the charge of rehashing is one that made blissfully little impact on this Shrek first-timer.
The script also includes the best new word of 2010. “You’re a cat-astrophe!” Donkey (Eddie Murphy) tells Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). “And you’re re-donk-ulous,” comes the response. The ass and cat are the two funniest characters in a flick that doesn’t have many stand-out lines, but hums along rather nicely all the same.
Many people remain dubious about whether this will, in fact, be Shrek’s last appearance on the big screen. I was sufficiently entertained to promise a friend that I’ll check out the ogre’s first outing.
Rating 6 out of 10
