Fletch

This movie, based on the popular novel by Gregory McDonald, and starring Chevy Chase, reminds me of something. It reminds me of... it reminds me of... well... my movie. The one I wrote. It's more the genre of it than anything else (though the fact that it stars Chase--who I envisioned as my lead--doesn't hurt). It's not that the plot is the same, or the jokes. It's just the concept—a loosely constructed comedy, with a few elements of suspense and adventure, and a pretty threadbare plot (which at times only barely makes sense) which is really just an excuse for the hero to go around making witty off-hand comments in moments of crisis and non-crisis.

I mean, Fletch is almost exactly the way I had envisioned Jonathan Marks—the hero of “Extra Credit”—except maybe a bit more competent). I mean, in this movie, Chase also runs into a beautiful woman, who is sort of peripherally connected to the plot, who has no reason to fall for him (except that he's charming and witty) but she does anyway, and they sail off together. Fletch too is the kind of movie in which rather complex plot elements are wrapped up, in a matter of seconds (i.e., Fletch's trip to Utah to find clues—oh-so-much like Marks' trip to Phoenix—is dealt with, literally, in about 1 minute and 45 seconds). It's the kind of movie in which clues are conveniently left in the logical spot for them to be, except we in the audience know it would never really happen like that. In short, it's just like my movie, except a little better (though I think some of my scenes are just as funny) but then, my movie was a first effort and not based on any bestseller either.

Still, I don’t want to take too much away from them (after all, they didn't actually steal my movie). Chase is damn good at delivering those witty, off-hand remarks; he has excellent timing, and good inflections and gestures. (I like when he mutters sotto voce to a snarling, vicious Doberman Pinscher on the other side of a door, "Stay.") The supporting cast (including Tim Matheson, whom I like) is excellent, and the film just flits amusingly along, though it wasn't until about 2/3 of the way through that I actually began to believe that it HAD a plot at all (and when the plot came together, it was, of course, much too convoluted, and certainly much too convoluted to be solved by the simple methods that Fletch uses). (Kind of like my movie.) The film's direction, by Michael (“Smile,” “The Candidate”) Ritchie, is unobtrusive, which here is probably a good thing. He knows enough to stand back and let Chase do his thing. He can't, however, resist having a car chase, even if it is full of witticisms. The movie is good natured, and certainly not offensive, and kept me laughing pretty frequently. (Oh yeah, ended up having Fletch pursued by cops too, and he dodges them in a big set-piece—just like my movie—odd thing is, I found that sequence, which is used on all the talk shows, to be one of the less funny ones.) The movie pushes credibility well past the bursting point; it takes the Jim Rockford "bluff your way through anything" approach to the absurd extreme; nobody could be as stupid as the people Fletch snows. (He escapes one guy by telling him his shoelaces are untied. I swear.).

But then, you don't go to a movie like this looking for credibility. You go to see Chevy Chase crack jokes, which he does with skill. He's kind of like a white Eddie Murphy, except where Murphy uses brass and bluster, Chase uses unflappable cool and total nonchalance under fire, and an impromptu wit that won't stop even when he is staring death in the face. He's sort of like a taller Bill Murray in that regard—totally unimpressed with anything that happens around him. Funny how all those guys came out of “Saturday Night Live.” I wonder if it's something in the food. Lastly, this movie has a tremendous number of pop culture signifiers, so many I lost count. Fletch keeps introducing himself as real people, like Ted Nugent, Harry Truman, Stravinsky, Gordon Liddy, and others who are masscult products. It also has what I believe to be the second recorded "Make my day" joke on film. Hurray!!!