Zach Galifianakis awoke from his “Hangover” two years ago to find himself the next big comic star.
Has his moment already passed?
Galifianakis only has three major roles under his belt since “The Hangover” rocked the 2009 summer box office. He flashed depth and darkness in “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” playing a mentally ill man trying to mentor a fellow patient. He leavened the character’s seething anger with humor just when the situation demanded it.
But in his two straight-up comedies the Zach Method appears to be running on fumes.
In “Due Date” he played a mercurial actor whose behavior would drive anyone batty. It’s a miracle co-star Robert Downey, Jr.’s character didn’t smother him with a pillow.
Now, in “The Hangover Part II,” Galifianakis takes the formerly lovable Alan from the original film and makes him borderline psychotic. Alan acts out at every turn, making him less a character and more of a walking plot device scrounging for laughs.
The actor will surely get more chances at leading man roles, but it’s hard not to think his comic persona is already setting like cement. Two years ago crowds loved Galifianakis’s man-child shtick. You didn’t know whether to hug him or shake him until he started making sense.
Now, he’s prickly and distant on screen, and that palpable charm lies buried under layers of calculated shtick. It’s a comic pose that’s difficult to master, and so far Galifianakis appears unable to get a handle on it.
He’s fared better in the smaller parts secured since “The Hangover’s” fame. In “Dinner for Schmucks” he played the mind-bending jerk giving star Steve Carell fits.
Dare we blame director Todd Phillips, who pulled the strings on both “Due Date and the “Hangover” films, for his insufferable comic performances? Or does Galifianakis already have enough pull to shape his characters as he sees fit? Or is he a performer who thrives in smaller roles tailored to his idiosyncratic nature?
How do you see the comic actor’s growth this early in his career?
(Photo: Zach Galifianakis stars as Alan in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ comedy “The Hangover Part II,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
If Philips directed all the things where Galifianakis is bad, well, correlation may not mean causation, but it does sort of gesture in causation’s direction. It’s sorta the reverse of how Uma Thurmin is only a really good actress when Tarantino is directing her and writing her dialogue (she always sounds really weird saying anyone else’s lines, but his style and hers mesh perfectly).
Albeit a supporting role, no love for Galifarikiafrakus in Dinner for Schmucks?
EricP, from the blog article above:
…”He’s fared better in the smaller parts secured since “The Hangover’s” fame. In “Dinner for Schmucks” he played the mind-bending jerk giving star Steve Carell fits”…
Love was given…love was given.
Thanks, Mike B. Apparently my reading comprehension skills have diminished greatly as the years progress.
“Jumping the bearded shark” sounds like it should be a euphamism for something dirty.
It’s Will Ferell and Jack Black all over again, isn’t it? An established but not particularly well-known comic actor suddenly becomes big playing essentially the same character he’s been playing in bit parts for years. He has a string of hits still playing the same character, but people start getting sick of him and he has trouble adapting, and gradually fades back into the background (but still at a much higher profile than when he started).
What bugs me is when actors who are known almost solely for their man-child schtick try to do highbrow satire, like when Ferrell does his bad Bush impression. At least Jerry Lewis didn’t try to satirize LBJ.
Actually, that’s probably why continental Europeans like Lewis; the Germans and especially the French usually keep their comedy and other kinds of art separate, just like how they keep their private and professional lives separate, and they like pure clowning more than “smarter” comedy. Watch any German sitcom and just try—I dare you—not to think of the bumblebee-suit guy from the Simpsons.