1999's Bowfinger is a comedy by Frank Oz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Indian in the Cupboard) featuring Steve Martin as down-on-his-luck wanna-be Hollywood producer Bobby Bowfinger. He can't get action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) to star in the sci-fi film "Chubby Rain" that his accountant has written. Rather than give up, he hits upon the idea of having his actors (including veteran stage actress Christine Baranski and ambitious ingenue Heather Graham) walk up to Ramsey unawares and say their lines, filming his inevitably shocked and increasingly panicky reactions surreptitiously (with a film crew he picked up at an illegal border crossing).
Now, it's a ridiculous premise that has barely enough traction to work in a sitcom, let alone a feature film filled with gifted comic actors. But it turns out the idea has a historical precedent. Well, sort of. Okay, the story has a precedent at least.
The 1927 Russian film Potseluy Meri Pikford (A Kiss From Mary Pickford) was reputed to have been shot without the knowledge of the silent film star and her companion, Douglas Fairbanks. In truth, these two silver screen icons happened to be in the U.S.S.R. on vacation and willingly shot cameos for it.
It is, of course, unreasonable to imagine that such a contrivance could hold up under even moderate scrutiny, but the set-ups are well-thought-out in Steve Martin's script, from Bowfinger's insistence that Kit Ramsey has asked for the cameras to be hidden in order to maximize realism to the contrivances used to capture the shots (such as having a duct-taped piece of cardboard with "Will work for food" scrawled on it turn it to a lighting reflector when "action" is covertly called.
I won't call it a great film, but there is a lot to like in it, especially if, like me, you appreciate reading about the real-life madness that occurs behind the scenes on a Hollywood picture, like Steve Martin's rant against ageism as he bemoans approaching 50 (although the money he claims to have saved since age 10 at $1 a week would actually put him at 52). Christine Baranski's stately demeanour does not suggest a character who almost took an offer of dinner theatre in Edmonton during the opening scene, and Eddie Murphy arguing that even though his character is the world's premiere black action hero, he won't be able to win an Oscar unless his agent finds him a script with "a retarded slave" in it has just enough realism in it to make us cringe - and laugh.
Of particular delight to me, however, are all the thinly veiled swipes at the Church of Scientology, lampooned here as MindHead, and led by the incomparable Terrence Stamp.
I don't know what I like more in this scene; Murphy's perfect pivot from egomaniacal celebrity to eager-to-please disciple, his brilliant portrayal of a man barely in control of his feelings (and possibly faculties), or Terence Stamp's brilliantly deadpan response to Murphy's earnest delivery of lines like "Happy principle number three: even though I feel like I might ignite... I probably won't."
Eddie Murphy is at his best when he is either making fun of his won reputation and image or portraying someone totally unlike him, and in Bowfinger, he gets to do both, playing both Kit Ramsey and his hapless lookalike and Burger King employee Jiff. Jiff is by no means the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Murphy still manages to convey a sweetness and likability to the character instead of a broader drawing of a gullible poltroon.
Having said that though, a scene where he is haunted by footsteps in a parking garage, not knowing that they belong to Bowfinger's dog wearing high heels in another row really showcases Murphy's actual acting ability. Watching him transition from paranoid to annoyed to angry and combative and finally to straight-up terrified is an amazing bit of craft which is easy to miss when you are laughing so hard.
If you are the kind of person who sits through the end credits of a movie or can name two or more cinematographers, or, like me, who believes it is nothing short of miraculous that any movie gets made, ever, let alone good ones, check out Bowfinger.
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