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| Release Date: | April 28th, 2005 (UK) - April 29th, 2005 (US) |
| Runtime: | 110 minutes |
| Rated: | PG |
| Genres: | Comedy, Sci-Fi |
| Directed by: | Garth Jennings |
| Written by: | Douglas Adams (book & screenplay), Karey Kirkpatrick (screenplay) |
| Starring: | Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Warwick Davis, John Malkovich, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, Alan Rickman (voice), Stephen Fry (voice), Helen Mirren (voice) |
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 Bear in mind while you read this review that I, like many others, am a self-confessed geek; I was brought up on Douglas Adams' stuff and worship The Hitchhiker's Guide as my own personal Geek-Bible. I followed the development of the movie even before the rumours surfaced that Jim Carrey was to play Ford Prefect, which really could've turned out to be the biggest cinematic disappointment of my sad little life. Douglas Adams is certainly not for everyone, so there are a huge percentage of people who just won't "get it", and the ones that will are of course the sci-fi geeks who are notoriously the pickiest bunch of know-it-alls, and are therefore impossible to please. In short, this lot were really playing with fire when the finally got around to making Hitchhiker's.
The minute I found out Hammer and Tongs were involved in the production my heart lifted. Hammer and Tongs are the team behind some of the most delightful music promos of recent years, from the incredibly cute "Last Stop this Town" video for The Eels to the exceptionally, well, cute "Coffee and TV" video for Blur. So, I suppose we can assume from this that their take on The Hitchhiker's Guide would be cute?
Yep, it certainly is, but in a thoroughly British way. Other rumours such as a black Ford Prefect worried me greatly, until a friend told me about an interview Douglas Adams had before his death in which he stated that he was open to whatever the film version of the book would bring. When you think about it, every single other incarnation of it has been totally different from the previous one anyway. Besides, Adams himself fiddled about with the screenplay so a lot of the differences were actually initiated by the man himself, so at least they aren't sacrilegious to the author's intentions.
Martin Freeman, who appears here fresh from the British TV comedy "The Office", is cast perfectly as Arthur Dent. Mos Def really had to out-do himself to get any kind of seal of approval from me, and I have to confess that he's not bad, and it's certainly better than his turn in The Woodsman from earlier this year - but do bear in mind that Ford was originally played by a most delightful Oxford-esque chap in a blazer. Sam Rockwell does OK as a charismatic Zaphod, although the president's days of having a second obviously fake plastic head attached to his shoulder are well and truly over, sadly.
The real joy in this film however is not in the great performances; it's the absolute rapture the production team have clearly had in making a tribute to a man with an incredible imagination, which means that the atmosphere of the film is perfect. The special effects are spot on, and the team behind the new Dr. Who must really be kicking themselves when they see the creatures in this - they haven't been made to look too slick, but they certainly aren't men in rubber suits! They teamed up with another English music promo team, Shynola (responsible for the fantastic Queens of the Stone Age video "Go With the Flow") to create the animated entries for The Guide itself (which are voiced by Stephen Fry in another example of spot-on casting!).
One final area of slight concern for me was the images of the "new and improved" Marvin, the paranoid android. I suppose when you think about it you couldn't really have the foil-covered boxes version of Marvin as used in the original TV series wandering about pretending to be high-tech in this updated version, and what I didn't realize at the time was that Alan Rickman was to voice him. Frankly, who else could have possibly taken the role? And if you keep an eye out you'll spot some nods to the original series, such as Marvin wandering about in the background.
Oh, and for those of you who have already seen the film and are anxiously awaiting a sequel: Martin Freeman attended a Q&A after the film was completed and commented that he and a lot of the members of the cast would be interested in doing the sequel (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which happens to be my favorite in the series). But considering how long it actually took to get this one onto the screen, I wouldn't hold my breath. There are just so many little touches and cameos in this that it can keep you busy with repeat viewing anyway.
Suffice it to say, this is a fitting tribute to Douglas Adams. It's also wonderful to see another British film that isn't either a gritty social commentary or an "ever-so-charming-romantic-comedy-starring-Hugh-Grant" (which appears to have become a complete sub-genre in its own right). And you never know, it might just bring The Hitchhiker's Guide to a whole new generation. After all, everybody's guilty of being a geek these days thanks to the wonderful work of Peter Jackson, the upcoming premiere of Steven Spielberg's adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, and the success of comic book-to-movie adaptations. |
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Rachel Hunter
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