Review of Bedazzled

Introduction

Bedazzled is based on the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore film of the same name and follows the same basic premise.

Elliott (Brendan Frazer) is a friendless nerd - he means well but just can`t seem to relate to people and certainly not to Alison, a co-worker whom he has been admiring from afar for years. After a particularly dispiriting rejection by Alison in a bar he is approached by a beautiful woman who just happens to be the Devil (Liz Hurley). The Devil offers Elliott seven wishes in return for his soul and suggests that he might use them to get Alison to love him. After some initial reservations, Elliott agrees and the wishing begins.

Of course, when you are dealing with the Devil, you have to be careful what you wish for …

Video

The video is presented in a 2.35:1 Anamorphic transfer and in very good indeed. The film is awash with primary colours (especially red) and these come across vividly and accurately. Elsewhere the image is bright clear and detailed. Technically, there is little that could be improved.

Visually, the film is fine. It is occasionally inventive but there is little of note other than Miss Hurley and her various outfits - if you like that kind of thing.

Audio

As with the video, the audio is excellent. Dialog is crisp and clear, effects make good use of all channels and music comes across well. Again, as with video, despite being technically excellent, there is little here of any real consequence. David Newman`s score is forgettable, as are most of the songs. The honourable exception is Tone Loc`s Wild Thing. This comes slamming in at just the perfect moment. That said, it was used to much better effect in Uncle Buck.

Features

Continuing the theme of technical excellent is the disk`s feature set. We get two commentaries - one by director Harold Ramis and one with Hurley and producer Trevor Albert. Both are decent enough but there is significant overlap in content and you will be unlikely to want to listen to both. The commentary by Ramis is marginally more interesting and would be my recommendation. Hurley, by the way says little during her commentary with the bulk of the information coming from Albert.

Hurley fans are better served by the "Making of" featurette, where Liz takes us through the production and shows us "the best bits" of the film. Overall, this is just a puff piece, providing little insight into the film.

We also get various trailers, TV spots and short pieces on costume design and scoring.

However, the most worthwhile section is the Deleted Scenes. There is a unedited version of the basketball commentary which I felt was on of the film highlights - "I don`t know what you`re talking about, Jerry" - and is even better in its loose 7 minute version. Finally, there is a dark Rock Star wish section. This was cut from the final film because "nobody liked it" and the reasons for this are obvious - it was dark, depressing and threatening. It is worth watching to try and fathom what Ramis was thinking when he filmed it because it was never going to get into the finished film.

Conclusion

Despite being based on the original Bedazzled, it reminded me more of Ramis` earlier Groundhog Day. You have an essentially unlovable character re-inventing himself time after time to win the love of a woman. Through these selfish re-inventions, our hero comes to a better understanding of the world, women and himself.

The main difference between Groundhog Day and Bedazzled is that Groundhog Day is a good movie and Bedazzled isn`t. Bedazzled isn`t funny (always a problem for a comedy). It isn`t sexy (despite dressing Hurley up as a cop, nurse, teacher, nun etc). It isn`t touching (despite a schmaltzy ending). It isn`t much of anything, least of all enjoyable.

There is little to recommend here. The script and plot suck, the pacing is all wrong - making the film seem much longer than its 89 minutes - and Ramis` direction leaves a lot to be desired.

The only thing that saved the movie was two outstanding performances by Brendan Fraser and Frances O`Connor as Alison. When watching dreck like this, it would be easy to forget that Fraser is a superb young actor. Fortunately, Fraser refuses to let us forget this, bringing believability to the most stereotypical of roles (drug baron, effete intellectual, thicko athlete) and some much needed humour to this generally unfunny comedy. Frances O`Connor is almost as good in the thankless role of Alison - she exists merely as a foil for Elliott`s desire but O`Connor gives the character flesh. They can`t save the film but they certainly try.

In fact, Fraser and O`Connor reunited to play Maggie and Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London recently. I was fortunate enough to see them and was, once again, impressed by their performances. I guess if they hadn`t worked together on Bedazzled, Cat might not have happened and so, maybe, Bedazzled was worthwhile after all.

I didn`t enjoy the film - what pleasures exist are slight and certainly not worth purchasing the DVD for. If you are in an undemanding mood, it might make for an acceptable rental but, please, try before you buy.