The Nutty Professor (1996)

 1.5/4

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, Larry Miller, John Ales

Rated PG-13 for Crude Humor and Sexual References

Here's an idea: take manic comedian Eddie Murphy, give him a brilliant comic premise, and add in some superlative make-up work, and voila!  Comedy gold!

It seems like a can't miss proposition, but it does.  And by quite a bit.

Professor Sherman Klump (Murphy) is a brilliant scientist who has created a potion that will rewrite a person's DNA to make them lose weight instantaneously.  That has special significance for Sherman, whose 400 pound frame has completely eaten away at his self-confidence.  Yet he has a good heart which endears him to a pretty grad student named Carla Party (Smith), who, much to his surprise, agrees to go on a date with him.  It turns into a disaster when a stand-up comic (Dave Chappelle in a cameo) humiliates him in public with such viciousness that it becomes a form of verbal brutality.  Desperate and bruising, Sherman takes the potion himself.  Not only does he lose weight, the potion gives birth to an alter-ego named Buddy Love who is so obnoxious that he threatens to destroy Sherman's life.

This is a great idea for a comedy.  In fact, the first half hour is terrific.  Sure the film has some gags at Sherman's expense, but through it all, he remains as good hearted and determined as ever.  For example, one clip shows Sherman trying and failing to exercise (sinking into the trampoline at the gym, being completely clueless in aerobics class).  That's good comedy because it has truth in it.  It's all going swimmingly until Buddy Love shows up.  Then the film completely collapses.

There are two reasons why Buddy Love not only doesn't work, but sinks the film.  One, he's so obnoxious and offensive that it's impossible to realize that no one notices.  Part of the conflict is that Carla is caught between Sherman and Buddy.  But Buddy is so vulgar that no one, and certainly not a sweet woman like her, could stand to be near him.  It just doesn't play.  And two, Sherman is not aware of Buddy at all.  In order for the premise to work, Sherman should either know about Buddy's existence or be completely oblivious.  The film takes neither position, which makes the film unable to have a consistent comic point of view.

I have come to the realization that, in order for a comedy to work, the people on screen have to create characters.  Which is to say that they have to have comic personalities as opposed to mouthpieces for jokes.  That's the difference between great comedy like "Tommy Boy" or "Bad Moms" over crap like "The Bob's Burgers Movie" or any of Seth Rogen's ego trips.  Being vulgar and obnoxious is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.  But we have to understand why they are vulgar and obnoxious.  In other words, Buddy Love would only work if there was a motive, however twisted or unwholesome, for his behavior.  That doesn't happen here.  It's just an excuse for Murphy to shout a lot and cause trouble.

There's only one person who has a consistent comic personality: Sherman.  Everyone else is either undeveloped or needs definition to work.  Jada Pinkett Smith in particular is shortchanged.  Not only is she given thin material to work with (at least a quarter of her lines are so bad that they would be impossible to save), she is given little time to show just how good of an actress she really is.  Larry Miller has the same problem as Buddy: his behavior changes by the needs of the plot.  There's no personality there.

The film has some amusing moments and Sherman Klump is virtually impossible not to like, but this film is missing what it really needs: a finished screenplay.