It was a late Sunday afternoon after a late Saturday night and it was my partner that suggested that, of all the films doing the rounds, The House Bunny would be a good pick. I did have my doubts on her call but figured that it might be silly fun in an undemanding sort of way and that maybe it was suitable for the situation. The film opens with a tone that suggests that this was the right approach because from the get-go I was getting a vibe of Clueless and figured that there would be some silly laughs on the way to the obvious conclusion of "on second thoughts, to thy own self be true and it will all be OK" moral. Fine, I will concede that the Happy Madison production company logo was a little bit of a concern but not to the point where I ever prejudged the film before it had even had a chance to work on me.
Looking back though, had I done so I would not have been far off the mark because The House Bunny is a pretty flat piece of work. Lets cut right through it here and get right to the central problem, which is that it is simply not funny enough to make me forgive it and ignore all the other problems it has - and it has plenty. Since watching I was read many comments ripping into it for the simple characters, the basic plot, the lack of internal logic that it has even within the context of the jocks/nerds high school genre but if all these viewers had been rolling in the aisles or charmed by the film then few of them would be saying any of these (even if they all continued to be true). Sadly the majority of the film is unfunny and has little in the way of charm. Neither thing can be said of Faris though because her delivery makes for some of the few funny bits of the piece. OK she struggles with her airhead character but when she gets to juxtaposition her bubbliness with things that don't fit her character, like swearing or the physical slapstick.
This is not enough though and there are few others willing to step up and help her. The students themselves are all so-so characters and their performances are what you would expect. It doesn't help that some of them are so simple on paper (written for the sake of comedy) that we don't really feel for them across the story. McDonald and D'Angelo are solid additions but other than one or two good laughs they aren't ever fully utilised. Hefner happily takes part in the movie as it allows him to further cement this idea of him as a cool part of our culture where he is like a kindly uncle preceding over good clean fun, and certainly not a pornographer who has gotten rich from the fact that young women are attractive in states of undress or while having full sex.
Speaking of this actually, it is hard to avoid one of the biggest underlying problems with the film and it is related to the whole Playboy thing. You see, as a man, I do watch porn and, while in the back of my mind there is a worry about exploitation or a disbelief that someone would seek out a job that asks them to do some of the things that are now standard in these films (not to mention the stuff that is not standard), I generally don't think about it too much. Now at least I can be honest about that but The House Bunny turns a totally blind eye and creates this fantasy that the playboy mansion is all about loveliness and beauty and not about pornography or sex in any way. In itself I can ignore this because it is a lie that has been told so many times before but what bugs me here is how the place is used as an ideal within the transformation of the characters. The message of "to thy own self be true" never appears and, although it tries to get to some sort of slightly warming moral it ultimately can be summed up by "for the love of God don't be yourself because boys won't like it and if you're not popular then you are nothing". This is not the most uplifting of messages but I could buy it if it had used this for the majority and then flipped it for the ease of closing the film - it is concerning that nobody seemed to think that this was necessary to do.
Like I say though, if the film had been funny then I wouldn't have minded any of this stuff but there are just too few laughs in here to cover anything. Faris produces a handful but they are all "out-of-nowhere" laughs that come because they don't fit with the rest of the material - which unfortunately is the majority of the running time. A very basic comedy that is nowhere near funny enough to cover up the problems and the themes that it has.
Looking back though, had I done so I would not have been far off the mark because The House Bunny is a pretty flat piece of work. Lets cut right through it here and get right to the central problem, which is that it is simply not funny enough to make me forgive it and ignore all the other problems it has - and it has plenty. Since watching I was read many comments ripping into it for the simple characters, the basic plot, the lack of internal logic that it has even within the context of the jocks/nerds high school genre but if all these viewers had been rolling in the aisles or charmed by the film then few of them would be saying any of these (even if they all continued to be true). Sadly the majority of the film is unfunny and has little in the way of charm. Neither thing can be said of Faris though because her delivery makes for some of the few funny bits of the piece. OK she struggles with her airhead character but when she gets to juxtaposition her bubbliness with things that don't fit her character, like swearing or the physical slapstick.
This is not enough though and there are few others willing to step up and help her. The students themselves are all so-so characters and their performances are what you would expect. It doesn't help that some of them are so simple on paper (written for the sake of comedy) that we don't really feel for them across the story. McDonald and D'Angelo are solid additions but other than one or two good laughs they aren't ever fully utilised. Hefner happily takes part in the movie as it allows him to further cement this idea of him as a cool part of our culture where he is like a kindly uncle preceding over good clean fun, and certainly not a pornographer who has gotten rich from the fact that young women are attractive in states of undress or while having full sex.
Speaking of this actually, it is hard to avoid one of the biggest underlying problems with the film and it is related to the whole Playboy thing. You see, as a man, I do watch porn and, while in the back of my mind there is a worry about exploitation or a disbelief that someone would seek out a job that asks them to do some of the things that are now standard in these films (not to mention the stuff that is not standard), I generally don't think about it too much. Now at least I can be honest about that but The House Bunny turns a totally blind eye and creates this fantasy that the playboy mansion is all about loveliness and beauty and not about pornography or sex in any way. In itself I can ignore this because it is a lie that has been told so many times before but what bugs me here is how the place is used as an ideal within the transformation of the characters. The message of "to thy own self be true" never appears and, although it tries to get to some sort of slightly warming moral it ultimately can be summed up by "for the love of God don't be yourself because boys won't like it and if you're not popular then you are nothing". This is not the most uplifting of messages but I could buy it if it had used this for the majority and then flipped it for the ease of closing the film - it is concerning that nobody seemed to think that this was necessary to do.
Like I say though, if the film had been funny then I wouldn't have minded any of this stuff but there are just too few laughs in here to cover anything. Faris produces a handful but they are all "out-of-nowhere" laughs that come because they don't fit with the rest of the material - which unfortunately is the majority of the running time. A very basic comedy that is nowhere near funny enough to cover up the problems and the themes that it has.