Year One (2009)

When it comes to comedies, my primary concern is whether or not they make me laugh; the structure of the narrative comes second. Of course, a truly great comedy manages to combine both elements into something more than a loose collection of bits. Year One, in keeping with the previous rule, isn’t a masterpiece of the genre, but I’m happy to report that it still manages to tickle the ‘ol funny bone on occasion. I just wish it had tickled harder and with greater frequency.

Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) are a couple of tribesman wallowing in mediocrity. Zed isn’t a very good hunter, so he’s rejected by the lovely Maya (June Raphael). Oh is a decent gatherer, but Eema (Juno Temple), the girl he longs for, is more interested in the burly hunters of the village. After Zed eats from the tree of forbidden fruit–in an effort to improve his station in life–he’s banished from the tribe. Before he goes, he accidentally sets fire to Oh’s hut, and this gains him a follower in the form of the young gatherer.

The two set off over the mountains, past the point where it was believed the world ended. They soon begin to encounter numerous characters and locales from the Bible, including feuding brothers Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd), the foreskin obsessed Abraham (Hank Azaria), and director Harold Ramis as a past-his-prime Adam. Their various misadventures culminate in the wicked city of Sodom, where they become embroiled in royal intrigues, debate the existence of God, and get to oil down the ape-like chest of the local high priest (Oliver Platt).

The biggest problem with Year One is that it feels like a lot of jokes with nothing much between them. The story itself is a generic hodgepodge, and it’s pretty easy to see where it’s all headed. Sometimes it works perfectly, while other times the humor seems stretched out a bit thin (the Cain and Abel sequence being a far-too-long example). Black and Cera do their part to keep the laughs coming, but the overall level of comedy is more consistent with an overnight rental than something you’d shell out the extra bucks for at a theater.

I also couldn’t shake the feeling that the film was holding something back. At times, I got the sense that it wanted to be truly subversive and raunchy, but those moments were infrequent at best. The film originally received an “R” rating, but pleas with the MPAA and additional cuts watered things down to its current PG-13 version. I’ve no idea what was taken out, but something tells me it was probably pretty damned funny if the stodgy MPAA had a problem with it. Too bad that Year One didn’t take a cue from another recent film, The Hangover, and just throw caution to the wind.

Year One is a rare example of a film where the straight man is actually funnier than his partner. Michael Cera fills this role in the film, and he manages to get more laughs while his co-star struts around with the usual level of Jack Black bluster. That’s not to say that Black isn’t funny, it’s just that Cera’s deadpan delivery seems to strike the right chords more often. Hank Azaria also stands out as Abraham, a true believer ready to do anything in the service of God, especially if it means cutting off some foreskin. Azaria plays the role straight, which only makes his zealous antics all the more amusing.

If you’re a man and unsure about whether or not to see this film, let me offer a few words of encouragement: Olivia Wilde, June Raphael, Eden Riegel and Juno Temple. Even if you find the humor stale, you’ll be mesmerized by the beauty of these female co-stars (Wilde, in particular, is distractingly gorgeous). Perhaps I have some sort of ancient civilization fetish, but I love seeing contemporary beauties dressed in various outfits of the period. I’m reminded of that snoozer of a film, 10,000 BC, and how watching Camilla Belle in her barely-there outfit made it all worthwhile. Thank goodness for fantasy fulfillment, as something tells me that women back then weren’t very handsome by modern standards. Maybe it was the lice.

There’s nothing horribly wrong with Year One; the heroes are likable, the sets believable, and the humor comes at an enthusiastic pace. Most of the tools were available for building a superior comedy, but it feels as though a few pieces were left out during the construction process. Actually, that’s been the case with almost all the movies I’ve seen so far this summer. Here’s hoping some brilliant young filmmaker will gather all these spare pieces together and eventually make a film that’s truly worth our time.