Observe and Report

This Movie Made Me: Shocked (In a Good Way)


Let’s get this straight: Ronnie Barnhardt is more Travis Bickle than Paul Blart. Despite arriving only a few months later than this year’s other mall cop movie, Observe and Report is in no way a rip-off. Writer/director Jody Hill gives us an awkward comedy on steroids, where we’re the ones who are wonderfully disturbed by what we see.

Ronnie (Seth Rogen) is a bipolar mall cop at the Forest Ridge mall. He spends his days dispensing knowledge to his mall cop underlings, harassing a Middle Eastern vendor, and pining over make-up counter girl Brandi (Anna Faris.) But when a trenchcoat-wearing flasher appears in the parking lot, assaulting various women – including Brandi – Ronnie realizes he has a mission. He will be the one to track down the pervert, even as the city sends a snide detective (Ray Liotta) to head the investigation.

But instead of laughing at the deluded Ronnie, we’re troubled by him. Hill treats his illness with the utmost seriousness – and the violence that ensues from it is shockingly real. Ronnie’s life is incredibly dark – he still lives with his pass-out-on-the-floor drunk of a mom, and he’s completely unaware of how stupid people think he is. But that’s all part of the edgy humor. When vicious drug dealers on a street corner surround Ronnie, we’re genuinely afraid. But his bone-crunching, face-smashing revolt is at once hilarious and horrifying.

It’s to Rogen’s credit that Ronnie is as heartbreakingly ignorant as he is. He isn’t the lovable yet despised goof that Ace Ventura was – he’s a genuinely troubled individual whose delusions are more sad than funny, but Rogen and Hill find humor without shortchanging reality. Faris (America’s preeminent ditz) brilliantly channels her comedic strengths while making Brandi as realistic as Ronnie. She’s a heartless creature; when Ronnie takes her on a date and mistakes her increasing drunkenness for affection, we can’t help but cringe. Even so, Faris turns Brandi into one of the most hilarious onscreen drunks in years. And when the night ends in a decidedly unromantic tryst, we’re shocked once again.

Time and again, Hill pushes the limits of decency and challenges us not to laugh at it. Nearly every filmic taboo smashes us in the face – drug and alcohol abuse, rape, disturbing male nudity – but he manages to make it all right in the end. Ronnie is dangerous but earnest. Even if we’re afraid of what he might do, we want him to win. But when something goes right for Ronnie, we're both cheering and scratching our heads. We're happy he's happy, but we're also questioning our own sanity when we support him. It takes a lot of guts and skill to create such a deranged but likeable character (especially in a comedy), but Hill and Rogen pass with flying colors.

This comedy is as dark as dark can get. Ronnie is an unhinged person, and is often frightening in his intensity. We never know what he’s going to do next – but that’s all part of the fun. Observe and Report will probably be the most polarizing movie of the year, and I have to credit the studio for releasing the film the way it is. You may end up disgusted, but if you’re in the mood for a film unlike any other… Observe and Report is for you.