I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there are at least a few fans of Adams among us, many of whom may be avoiding the potential misfire of this film version. Don’t; it’s well worth seeing, and amazingly good at capturing that precise Adams tone–somehow merging Spike Jones’ ceaseless ADD-led invention, Alec Guinness’ best sad-faced winsomeness, and Doctor Who’s ludicrous sci-fi noodling. (There: I wrote a cap review without mentioning Monty Python.)
I particularly loved the ‘throwaway’ bits–unlike an American counterpart, like “Airplane,” which spitfires punchlines, “Hitchhiker” offers up an endless array of wonderful set-ups. The movie’s best bits are an inventive stream of “guy walks into…” scenarios; who needs to play to the cheap seats with big yuks? From its opening credits, a bad ballad sung by dolphins, with a bad montage of jumping swimming chittering dolphins, you realize that the film is profoundly silly. Just like Adams.
When it gets “funny,” it loses a little luster. Sam Rockwell’s kind of fun, as George Bush. Mos Def is very fine, but subtle to the point of barely relevant for much of the movie. And Zooey Deschanel is about 1/3 as charming as in “All the Real Girls,” but that’s still pretty good. Even Martin Freeman–who’s good–doesn’t blow one away. Which is as it should be; the film (like the novel) is about supporting players, backgrounds, settings–the extras normally not visible in space opera. Bill Nighy walks in, late-movie, and steals the thing.
I got nothing much more to say than: it’s fun.