Our critics review The Garfield Movie & Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil
Too Much Cheese, Not Enough Pepperoni |
The Garfield Movie is enjoyable and witty in parts, and run-of-the-mill animated comedy in others. Rahul Desai reviews. |
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MARK DINDAL’s The Garfield Movie is the sort of safe and serviceable film that goes to a job interview with “short-term goals” highlighted on its CV. (I mean there’s ‘movie’ in its title.) It unfolds like the fast-food version of Pixar’s gourmet-level Ratatouille, which is just as well, given its titular cat’s super-sized American appetite. The premise: The human-loving and pizza-eating tabby cat rediscovers his street-cat dad only to be forced into a wild week featuring a dairy-farm heist, a vengeful Persian cat and a lovelorn bull. He is of course joined by his best buddy Odie, the dim but hopelessly faithful beagle. I went into the screening hungry, and perhaps the biggest emotion the movie elicits is more hunger — and a few giggles (if you’re above the age of 10). It reproduces that meta Marvel-meets-Ryan-Reynolds-ish humour, an all-too-familiar template in 2024. (Stream top-rated movies and shows across platforms and languages, using the OTTplay Premium Jhakaas pack, for just Rs 249/month.) In short, it’s nothing to write home about: enjoyable and witty in parts, run-of-the-mill animated comedy in others. In fact it’s hard to even review. Do I like it? Meh. Do I dislike it? Meh. Will I remember it? No. I don’t even think it aspires to be remembered, given its cookie-cutter ambitions and its contentment as a fluffy time at the movies. The backstory starring kitten Garfield is sweet, as is the glutton’s indulgent relationship with his human Jon, whose credit card he keeps maxing out to order takeaway. The adventure itself is a little bloated, what with the train travel and father-son tensions and derivative plan (if you’re a fan of cheese, it’s tough to concentrate on the characters). The casting is a nice little in-joke too: Ted Lasso’s boss (Hannah Waddingham) and grumpy football legend (Brett Goldstein) reunite as a cockney super-villain named Jinx and her canine henchman Roland. There’s also a half-stale, half-cute nod to Tom Cruise and his ridiculous stunts in a spoofy climax. |
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Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil Is Not As Funny As It Wants To Be |
The film succeeds in providing entertainment in a broad sense but never really delivers on its promise of comedy, writes Aditya Shrikrishna |
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| Cast: Prithviraj, Basil Joseph, Anaswara Rajan, Nikhila Vimal |
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WRITER Deepu Pradeep is clearly obsessed with the enterprise and farce of the wedding. It has been at the centre of three of his scripts now — Kunjiramayanam (2015); Padmini (2023); and the latest Vipin Das directorial with its ominous title, Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil. At the entrance of Guruvayur Temple. If Vipin Das’s previous film, Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (2022), imparted lightness to the toxicity of a nascent arranged marriage, his new film retains the lightness for the machinations of an upcoming one. The result is not perfect: intended to be an out-and-out comedy film, an old school version, not all of Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil works. It comes down to how it uses its talented ensemble, whose existence the writer and director seem to forget far too often. Like with these family comedies, the plot is straightforward. Vinu (Basil Joseph), a successful young man in Dubai, is engaged to Anjali (Anaswara Rajan), and this after a five-year mourning period for the loss of his first love Parvathy who, according to him, didn’t wait and married the man her parents found for her. Vinu and Anjali are to be married at Guruvayur Temple and he strikes up a brotherhood with Anjali’s elder brother Anand (Prithviraj). A brotherhood so strong that he nonchalantly ignores Anjali to bond with Anandettan, who lives in Jamshedpur alone. Anand is like the elder brother and friend Vinu never had, helping him scatter the ashes of his first love, something Vinu could never bring himself to until now. |
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