Gulliver's Travels

A classic book is a classic book. The sooner movie makers understand that, the better it is. One should not be deprived of a freedom of expression or thought but there should be a certain quality of execution that is expected. And I am all for prosecution of film makers who ruin the entire concept like Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (which I believe was probably the worst movie in that year) did for Sholay. A pity that this vice is wide spread. Gulliver’s Travels from Rob Letterman’s table is one such example. Johnathan Swift would have looked the other way and feigned any association with Letterman for the indifferent attempt made by Letterman in converting his 1728 classic to the big screen.

Lemeul Gulliver (Jack Black) is a mail room man who thinks he is super confident and can make it to places but all he does is talk about it and do nothing. He is the atypical Jack Black that is found in most of his movies to make it easier for you guys to understand. His normal life would start @ 7 in the morning followed by his many shenanigans and gets to his mundane work. It takes a new recruit to familiarize him with the fact that he is all talk and no ball. Needless to say he is mighty depressed by the end of the day when he realizes that the new recruit has been promoted as his new boss (not that it would happen in the real world).

Now Gulliver has this huge crush on the Travel editor of the magazine that he works for (Ooops… did I forget to mention that he works as a mail room clerk for a travel magazine? Sorry :P). Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet) is the love of his life for the past 5 years (something reminded me of Karthik Calling Karthik here). But he has never managed to build up the courage to even have polite conversation, leave alone the thought of having coffee with her. But when the new guy is made the boss, he decides to try and do something about it. He is about to ask Darcy but chickens out and instead takes an application for being the new writer. He spends the rest of the night putting together articles from several books and magazines and submits a few pieces of writing to Darcy. Just to impress her. What do you know… the next thing, he finds himself in the Bermuda Triangle which is where the story decides to move into the true Gulliver mode. By the time it gets here, you have lost nearly half an hour and wonder how is it that Letterman is going to take you through Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, Japan and the Country of the Houyhnhnms in the next hour or so. Well… the fact is that he does not.

There is so much more that could have been done by Letterman with a classic of this proportion. It is mighty disappointing to see the end result on most counts of movie making. Instances like these put the stereotype tag on otherwise extremely talented actors like Jack Black and Amanda Peet. The support cast of Jason Segel (Horatio), Emily Blunt (Princess Mary), Billy Connoly (King Theodore) and Chris O’Dowd (General Edward) are completely insipid. I would like to document a severe objection for the use of the name Lemuel Gulliver. Unless your parents where die heard Johanthan Swift fans, you would not want to name your son Lemuel. And mind you, your ancestors would have taken up the Gulliver name much earlier than that. Sounds more like a curse than a compliment. Disappointing to say the least. I had expected much better despite the bad reviews that I had read about the movie. 3 on 10 for this one.