Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: August 20th, 2009

    
Blacker than a Dirty Lump of Coal

    Some folks like their coffee blonde and sweet, but their comedy black. If you are one of that rare breed, you will probably get quite a few belly laughs from the directorial sophomore effort of Bobcat Goldthwaite: "World's Greatest Dad." The film is so down and dirty, and so awfully dark, you have to wonder, by the end of the film, is Goldthwait without one shred of moral integrity, or just one funny guy, with the big bongs to test the bounds of what is acceptable satire, or just how much shock can decent folks handle?

    What shred of decency that I, on occasion, possess must have taken the night off because I liked the film and found it uncomfortably funny.

    Just how black is the film? The films protagonist Kyle Clayton, played by former "Spy Kid" Daryl Sabara asphyxiates himself while seeking self-gratification, in an auto-erotic posture, while looking at neo-erotic pictures (shot by his camera phone) of his father's sometime, hot / cold lady-friend, Claire played by Alexie Gilmore.

    Now here is where it really gets weird and blacker than a Cloudy midnight on Halloween. The boy's middle-aged, single father, Lance Clayton, played by Robin Williams, makes the accidental Darwin Club death appear like a suicide and fakes a suicide note to lend legitimacy to the better death - if by mere degrees.

    Lance teaches poetry in the same high school that his son Kyle attended, and is an amateur author, whishing to one day write the great American novel. When he composes the last communication of his self-asphyxiated son, he cannot divorce himself from his aspiring talent as a wordsmith. To make matters worse, in this time of profound grief, "his" suicide note is lifted from the public record, by some anonymous reporter /student, and reprinted by the school newspaper.

    Now here's the stinger: The school's students and faculty read the profoundly deep and moving note, and begin to see his very different son in a very different light. Since Kyle is gone for good, these people transfer much of their previous unrecognized grief and later, their admiration of Kyle, to the father. The mood of the plot begins to darken when the sincerely grief stricken father begins to live vicariously through the newfound popularity of his "so misunderstood" son, using these peoples' misplaced respect of the boy to bask in their praise of his son's faked literary talent, and to get laid on a very regular basis. Lady-friend Claire is somewhat shallow.

    Terrible behavior right? Now here is where the film succeeds: It used the first 30 minutes of the film to present Kyle, and his relationship with his suffering father and everyone else that unfortunately knows the kid, as a true asshole (I do not uses this word often and when I do, I mean it). As you have probably surmised, Kyle is a pervert. The kid is so obsessed with the depths of depravity that he actually gives pornography, by comparison, a bad name. The kid is an asshole.

    Robin Williams, as the father living on the edge of the posthumous misplaced popularity of his deeply depraved son, pulls off this complex role, which makes the film work. It's an admirable story on the reality of the rare, but real social strata that exists within some schools, and no one within this social environment gets out of this satire without a full measure of well placed ridicule. An example: The school systems' psychiatrist is a twitter with his new role of that school's grief counselor, and wonders: Why no grief with Kyle's death? Imagine his excitement when the forged suicide abruptly changes the mood of the school?

    Director Goldthwait, who also wrote this dark tale, took a big chance and it worked. He took this low budget vehicle, and made it funny to those of us who can stomach the dark reality of the Clayton family. Unlike many reviewers, I do not give critical brownie points to films without money that, "like the little engine that could," pull it off, and succeed in what they intended - to entertain at some level. This film earned its stripes with me, because it deserves them. The film has its structural problems, which I will not mention because it will spoil the conclusion, but at just 99 minutes, there are plenty of laughs per minute for time served in the dark lair of this black film.

    Rated R. Released in theaters August 21, 2009

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