Hamlet 2 (2008) **½

On the surface Hamlet 2 appears to be a fresh and different kind of comedy from the other entries the genre has seen this year. It succeeds partially because of its courage to tell a personal story amidst absurdest and chaotic circumstances, while not pulling any punches for the sake of political correctness, but it fails to deliver on its promise. The whole film is essentially a build-up to the titular play, Hamlet 2, which is a sequel to Shakespeare's famous play, and also a semi-autobiographical tale from the author, failed actor/drama teacher, Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan). Dana is struggling to prevent the drama program from becoming the next head on the chopping block for arts programs at the local high school in Tucson, Arizona. Spurned by a prepubescent drama critic who has hated all his adaptations from theatrical films, he decides to tell his life story via the stage as both a means to purge his personal demons and motivate the town to prevent the students from losing the drama program. His controversial tale includes many offensive set pieces, such as Satan making out with the President of the United States, that has the town divided between moral outrage and unflinching curiosity.

The film is certainly amusing, but only in certain parts while it feels the whole of the film is full of all too familiar plot devices from other films. It's almost as if Dana Coogan himself has written the story. With the arts programs all being scrapped, Dana is left with many "tough, bad" kids in his class which he must now find a way to relate to. Even going so far as to reference Dangerous Minds as a tool he uses to reach to class, the story is straightforward. After many, albeit hilarious, bumps in the road, he is able to identify with the leader, Octavio (Joseph Julian Soria)of the class and discover he has an innate talent for the theater. His students go from loathing him to pitying to him to respecting him, mostly for keeping the original cast when the play makes the move to Broadway. The theme of the troubled students with the idealistic teacher is well worn territory even if it's given a new twist in that Octavio is not so troubled as it would seem.

Dana's increasingly failed marriage with Brie (Catherine Keener), they have been trying unsuccessfully to have children coupled with her rampant drinking conflicting with Dana's sobriety, is another retread of a familiar theme. The two are clearly not meant to be as a couple and it was obvious from the start something would happen between her and their boring boarder, Gary (David Arquette). Although this frees him up to pursue the lovely Elisabeth Shue, playing herself, who he is ironically a better match for. Granted the film takes these stories in new directions but in the end they finish exactly where they are expected to taking the punch out of the film. It adds to its scattered narrative and only hurts the overall production.

There are some shining moments in the film, one particularly being the addition of Elisabeth Shue, having left acting to become a nurse. She's a delight throughout and her pure enjoyment of the play mirrors that of the audience. For me, Shue will always be Jennifer, Marty McFly's girfriend, in the second and third Back to the Future movies and I was probably just as excited as Dana to see her in the film. That scene is my worst possible nightmare for how I would act meeting a celebrity in real life. It's an example of how the film succeeds on its gambles, having an actress portray a fictional version of herself with tongue firmly in cheek. Unfortunately this is also by no means an original idea, but it is a more successful facet of the film due largely to Shue's appeal.

It's fittingly strange that Hamlet 2 is produced by Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, the same team who produced Little Miss Sunshine, as both are generally uneven productions up until the last sequence which is full of laughs and leaves the audience with a final feeling of satisfaction before the lights rise again. The play is by far the true highlight of the film, as the varying and disparate pieces we have seen leading up to this point have sufficiently whet our appetites to see the finished production. It's no wonder it's a hit with those who actually stay through the whole thing and maybe the film would have fared better had the film just been the full play. An enjoyable film that suffers from dragging in too many areas given its short running time, Hamlet 2 held high promise, and provided there are some new executions on familiar plots, it fails to reach its potential and is saved only by a hilarious and spectacular ending.

Favorite scene: The show stopping rendition of "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" is not only a memorable song but a rousing musical number performed by the main cast during the course of the play. It's the rallying point for the audience when they begin to see how good it really is, one member stating he was equal parts horrified and fascinated. The epitome of how the film can couple controversial themes, tweaking convention on its nose, with crowd-pleasing humor, it's the type of sequence that the film should have had more of throughout. There are some other equally bold and comical bits in the film, such as the enlightened girl still being fearful of ethnics and stereotyping them continuously, but not nearly enough to keep them from being lost in the mix of "been there, done that".