The Kindest Cut of All

Have I talked already on here about Michel Gondry's planned film Be Kind, Rewind? I can't quite remember. As someone who's desperately trying to write a can't-miss high-concept summer comedy, I'm very intrigued and yet confused by this premise...

Jack Black will play a small-town video store clerk who accidentally erases all his rental tapes. (The explanation is that he has a magnetized metal plate in his head, which sounds a little unlikely and desperate an explanation to me...but what do I know?) Here's the weird part: to please the store's lone loyal customer, an apparently senile old woman, Black then stages and films remakes of all the rental movies.

Seriously. That's the set-up.

The main selling point here is Gondry's visuals coupled with Black re-enacting "The Lion King" "Rush Hour" "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Robocop" as the customers start to demand the remade movies. All the town gets involved and the film becomes a metaphor for the magic and importance of film-making.

Okay, obviously the hook is getting to film elaborate, silly remakes of big popular movies starring Jack Black. But why does he have to remake the films himself instead of buying new copies? Or why not just make his own films instead of remaking dumb Hollywood fare like Rush Hour, that probably wouldn't appeal to an old lady anyway?

I'm inclined to believe this would be the better movie. Maybe in the beginning, he thinks he's going to remake Hollywood movies, so you get a montage or a few scenes of him planning to redo Rush Hour or something, before deciding to get the townspeople to help him pull off a big, epic and original film. That feels more like a complete movie kind of story to me, even if it is a little less wacky and more formula.

But beyond that point, isn't this awfully thin? Gondry's an immensely talented director. His Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was my favorite movie of 2004 (due in part to the immense talents of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, of course). I just can't see making an entire film based around parodies starring Jack Black. It's a good bit for an Oscar host or a late night comic, but a whole 90 minute film?

I guess it's stupid to pick the film apart sight unseen, but I honestly can't see how this premise makes any sense and it's frustrating to me. I've been racking my brain for weeks now trying to come up with the perfect, easily writable and pitchable premise and this concept flies right in the face of everything I've been taught, essentially. For real.

Mainly in that it's nonsensical. Every time I come up with an idea that's surreal or even just a little weird, I'm told that it needs to make more sense and adhere to strict realism. I've been pitching people an idea I had about a romantic comedy set in an apocalyptic, post-WWIII dystopian future. Okay, that's not even that bizarre a concept. I could see the world "coming to an end" and giving way to a post-industrial wasteland any day now. But still, it's too fanciful, it's too out there. Apparently, suits want stories that are relatable and easy to film. You know, like The Chronicles of Riddick.

Naturally, because of the talent involved, I'm very curious about the movie. I don't mean to imply, at all, that I think it won't be any good. Gondry's made two films thus far - the mediocre Human Nature and the brilliant Eternal Sunshine - as well as some kickass music videos, but along with this year's Science of Sleep, this will be one of the first opportunities to see what he can do with a non-Kaufman feature. Has he just been an above-average stylist riding the coattails of one of our most exciting contemporary screenwriters? Or is he really the imaginative force to be reckoned with his early work implies?