Directed by: Andrew Fleming
Starring: David Arquette, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, Elisabeth Shue
Rating: R

Steve Coogan and Elisabeth Shue in Hamlet 2. (Courtesy photo)

Any time filmmakers attempt something novel yet accessible, you have to root for them. That’s undoubtedly what the folks at Focus Features were thinking when they paid a lot of money to distribute this independent feature Hamlet 2. They’re hoping that Steve Coogan’s wacko performance as a failed actor and near-failed drama teacher will grab audiences the way Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno have in recent years. It may happen, but I doubt it. Hamlet 2 is a mess. It really feels as if co-writer/director Andrew Fleming forgot to show up each day, leaving the cast and crew to fend for themselves. Hamlet 2 does have some laughs. In fact, its biggest laughs are repeated until the welcome is worn out. You can easily see the movie Fleming wanted Hamlet 2 to be. And that would have been a worthwhile movie, albeit one that still owed a huge debt to Waiting For Guffman. This one will entertain a few, and there’s no need to apologize for that. But it will exasperate more.

Dana Marschz (Coogan) has accepted that he isn’t a great actor. At least his job as a drama teacher in a Tucson high school allows him to pass along his passion for the theater. This semester an asbestos problem has forced a dozen unruly students into the class usually inhabited only by Rand and Epiphany (Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole). Dana is terrified by the new students, but also sees this as his opportunity to play the coveted role of ‘inspiring teacher.’ When he’s informed that the drama program is scheduled to be cut at the end of the semester, Dana decides to eschew his usual dramatizations of Hollywood films (he had planned on a musical version of The Lake House) and produce his dream project: a sequel to Hamlet. He gets the drama class behind him, but the school is opposed to the racy, irreverent, and downright offensive subject matter. In short order Dana loses his job, his wife (Katherine Keener, struggling mightily to figure out what kind of movie she’s in), and his sobriety. But, unbeknownst to him, the production has taken on a life of its own.

Andrew Fleming wrote and directed the cute 1999 film Dick. But his work on either side of that movie (Threesome, The In-Laws, and most recently Nancy Drew) hasn’t been so hot. Fleming gives the film no shape whatsoever, which does allow for a raggedy sort of appeal. There’s an awkwardness that may be intended and is sometimes effective. But what’s lacking is the extra layer of character insight. Dana Marschz is awfully funny in the hands of Coogan, but he isn’t a complete person. One could say his spectacular obliviousness is his central trait, except that it seems more like a convenient device for ignoring the story’s incongruities. You feel pretty certain Fleming and co-writer Pam Brady want us to get caught up in the show-must-go-on spirit, except they keep undermining their own intentions for the sake of familiar gags.

Steve Coogan has been a major comic star in England for 15 years, but he can’t quite crack the U.S. His roles in films like Around the World in 80 Days, Night at the Museum, and last week’s Tropic Thunder don’t give him the room to really strut his pompous-fool style. Here, he has an effeminate American accent and, while often being very funny, tends to mug like Chevy Chase. Still, Coogan is pretty painfully funny in the third-act performance of Hamlet 2. Too bad the production itself isn’t as button-pushing as it’s made out to be. The supporting cast is hit-and-miss, though Amy Poehler adds some verve late in the proceedings as a fierce ACLU lawyer.

I laughed consistently throughout Hamlet 2, but I still had time to register my restlessness while the film repeatedly killed its own momentum. The biggest crime about Hamlet 2 is that Fleming and Brady can’t decide how they feel about Dana or high school drama in general. They take some easy swipes at silly acting exercises and the like. But they don’t capture even a moment of the magic, the immediacy, or the heightened hormones. It’s an old and obvious rule, but whenever you’re going to lampoon a subject, you need to love that subject. Christopher Guest and company hammer the world of community theater in Waiting for Guffman, but they also clearly adore it. I’m not so sure here.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.