This is a Bill Murray movie. It's a Billy Murray comedy. It is also not a comedy in that it's about the brick walls and fears between Eastern and Western deeply formed norms. Both cultures have had some customs steeped in things very wrong, one slowly evolved to embrace needed changes and it isn't easy because it goes on today. The other culture is stuck in a stew of religious based fervor and long-standing tradition of which it struggles to allow any change. That struggle has come to the more developed world at large now and it is particularly messy because it includes much terrorism linked to it all regardless of what groups inside these Eastern countries are actually directly involved. I say all of this because for all the Bill Murray comedy this movie has a poignant side with a heart as it tells a fictitious story of two cultures clashing with a desperate man trying to save his career against a thousand years of strongly held beliefs against which he's oblivious to. This is a kind of land mine in a movie blending something beneath so subversive to a nation that actually could be a sea change for the better of that nation and the larger world. Music has a magic ability to transcend so much as witnessed by the fact that in the early sixties Motown brought a quantum shift in making music colorblind. So, for all the comedy there is something here that isn't funny at all, something that's bigger.
Bill Murray is playing a role he's well suited for at his age, that of a music manager well past his shelf life struggling for one more chance to get not just his career, but his life, back. He's devolved into something that only dire straights can create and he's perfect for it. In his current situation he's an arrest away from criminal fraud and in this he thinks he gets a break to take his only "talent" to perform in Afghanistan. With Murray we know nothing can be easy so it's 100% predictable after this setup that when the movie really gets going so do new troubles that make his old troubles seem pretty good in comparison. His talent flees, she steals his passport and money, and being his meal ticket he's got nothing and is in a very hostile country he can't even leave.
In this morass we get some A-List co-stars that are obliviously on board (i.e. this ain't a blockbuster, nor is it intended to be) because they love Bill. Richie Lenz (Murray) is in a bad way and, of course, it attracts some over-the-top crazies. Crazees include Danny McBride and Bruce Willis doing what they do best. It adds some color to be sure even if they don't have maximum screen time. At first I thought Kate Hudson was just not right for her role, a high-end hooker making a final nest egg where it's easy pickins', but she's great on camera so just roll with it as they say. As Murray is just trying to get some dough to exit the country he finds something he believes is special. Think of it as the next Adele, which is like the next Celine Dion, but in Afghanistan women singing is totally taboo. He gets her because she thinks it's destined and, somehow she becomes a contestant on the Afghan version of American Idol. This is the middle part and what happens next is Murray stretching out beyond his comedy chops as he does well when given that role. Is it believable? Well, I wouldn't bet against the power of music as a bridge which allows two disparate sides to finally meet.
Bill Murray is playing a role he's well suited for at his age, that of a music manager well past his shelf life struggling for one more chance to get not just his career, but his life, back. He's devolved into something that only dire straights can create and he's perfect for it. In his current situation he's an arrest away from criminal fraud and in this he thinks he gets a break to take his only "talent" to perform in Afghanistan. With Murray we know nothing can be easy so it's 100% predictable after this setup that when the movie really gets going so do new troubles that make his old troubles seem pretty good in comparison. His talent flees, she steals his passport and money, and being his meal ticket he's got nothing and is in a very hostile country he can't even leave.
In this morass we get some A-List co-stars that are obliviously on board (i.e. this ain't a blockbuster, nor is it intended to be) because they love Bill. Richie Lenz (Murray) is in a bad way and, of course, it attracts some over-the-top crazies. Crazees include Danny McBride and Bruce Willis doing what they do best. It adds some color to be sure even if they don't have maximum screen time. At first I thought Kate Hudson was just not right for her role, a high-end hooker making a final nest egg where it's easy pickins', but she's great on camera so just roll with it as they say. As Murray is just trying to get some dough to exit the country he finds something he believes is special. Think of it as the next Adele, which is like the next Celine Dion, but in Afghanistan women singing is totally taboo. He gets her because she thinks it's destined and, somehow she becomes a contestant on the Afghan version of American Idol. This is the middle part and what happens next is Murray stretching out beyond his comedy chops as he does well when given that role. Is it believable? Well, I wouldn't bet against the power of music as a bridge which allows two disparate sides to finally meet.