World’s Greatest Dad
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Rated: R
Cast: Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Henry Simmons, Evan Martin
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
WorkNameSort: World’s Greatest Dad
Our Rating: 3.00
The last film written and directed by popular ’80s comedian Bobcat Goldthwait of any consequence, in terms of the general filmgoing consciousness, was 1991’s Shakes the Clown. In that dark comedy, Goldthwait played an alcoholic children’s entertainer whose life was quickly slipping away from him. Robin Williams, a friend and sometime partner of Goldthwait’s, appeared in that film as a mime ‘ or, as Goldthwait’s clown referred to mimes, a ‘silent motherfucker.â?�
Nearly two decades later, Goldthwait re-emerges on the big screen, this time behind the camera, with World’s Greatest Dad. He cast his friend Williams again in an effort to invert the clown figure. Williams, who has made a fairly noble second career out of playing the sad clown beaten down by his own desire for attention until left as nothing but the shell of a one-time funnyman, shows us not a clown at a kid’s birthday party, but the piñata in his own kid’s life. Williams the dad lives for his son’s happiness but, like the abused clown, hates that he does.
That son, played with shocking, foul-mouthed, nasty relish by the redheaded Daryl Sabara (plucky Juni in the Spy Kids movies), is a high-school psychopath, the kind of loose cannon that forces schools to practice code red drills for when he finally snaps. He’s rightly treated as an outcast and fulfills his desires with dangerous sexual escapades in his bedroom.
Meanwhile, Williams is a single father and unpublished author who feels the point of unfulfilled literary ambition approaching at a rapid pace.
When his son ignores his father’s warnings and meets an untimely end, Williams witnesses firsthand the phenomenon of the deification of those who die young. His son’s fellow students, even his teachers, grasp for any insight into this complicated boy whom surely they must have misunderstood all this time. Williams sees an opportunity: If he speaks for his late son, then it’s a win-win. His son’s behavior is forgiven, along with his own failed parenting. Plus, maybe Williams’ poetic writings can finally be appreciated.
So he rides the wave of sentiment until he is not only appreciated but worshipped, and it’s at this point that Dad and Goldthwait lose their grip on the story. The intimate, grim character study shifts into grotesque high satire and suddenly wants to make a point with a capital ‘P.â?� It’s hard to argue with Goldthwait’s assertion that society’s search for spokesmen leads to false prophets, but it feels like an observation well-made many times over in the ’90s, at the height of anti-celebrity culture.
By the last act, Dad wants to pivot once again into a quiet meditation focused on Williams ‘ a diversion that leads to an admittedly fantastic final scene ‘ but by that time the thing has grown beyond Goldthwait’s (or the characters’) control and ability. Goldthwait and Williams know a thing or two about clowns, but it seems neither have yet learned when to walk away and enjoy the cake.
This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2009.