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Willard
(Three and a Half out of Five Stars)
This film takes a chapter from Hitchcock, but it is not Hitchcock. It stylizes with a Tim Burton feel, but it is not Tim Burton. The music even sounds almost like Danny Elfman, but it is not Danny Elfman. So, in some ways, this movie comes across as a cheap knockoff. It is, nevertheless, an interesting story carried by yet another radiant performance from Crispin Glover. Glover actually seems more at home in a bizarre role such as this than he was as his famous George McFly in Back to the Future, a safe and formulaic Zemeckis creation in which Glover was forced to manufacture the interesting aspects of his character (and he did it well as he is by far the best part of that 80’s commercial staple). In this role he settles into a calm realm, reserved brilliance and subtle darkness as Willard Stiles, a mistreated outcast who finds an answer to the rat race, only to be overwhelmed by his discovery. Glover is the only real above average aspect of the film, so I would give him four and a half stars, but the film only three or so. R. Lee Ermey is also pretty good as Willard’s conniving boss Frank Martin, but he has shined much brighter in films such as Mississippi Burning and Full Metal Jacket. Willard is worth seeing for Glovers’ performance alone.
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