Willard (2003)
“You have to see this movie,” extolled a former frequent companion. I had intended to catch a screener but could not find a soul willing to go with me. If you don’t know, it’s a remake of a 1971 horror film wherein a sadly put upon fellow has all these rats who do his bidding, and the craziness and the gnawing and glaven! In the best stroke of casting since Michael Clark Duncan as John Coffey, Crispin Glover is, truly, the titular ratmonger. As far as Crispin is concerned, rats spelled backwards is STAR. He owns this movie, every frame, not even being upstaged by zillions of real and CGI rats flowing like blood all around him, as implacable as the hotel in The Shining. Crispin’s voice, his face, his very being was genetically engineered for this role. No doubt the original Willard adequately addressed the genre of rat manipulation and torment. But occasionally an actor comes along who is so perfect for the role, you should just make him or her play it so it can be recorded as the definitive performance. Should it have been made, is it worth seeing? These questions are secondary to a film like Willard. “Because he is there,” should suffice.
Willard’s nemesis, boss Frank Martin, as played by R. Lee Ermey is so right it almost feels like you’re watching an old Twilight Zone rerun you’d forgotten you had memorized, both familiar and surprising. The rats themselves are incredible, very impressive. Fantastic work done on the part of the trainers and CGI people and the beasts themselves. Glover’s interaction with them is seamlessly real. It’s still his movie. It takes a lot to command a screen wiggling with tails and whiskers in such eye-popping numbers.
You might find this impossible to believe, but I swear it’s true - one of my companions had once rented Mr. Glover’s guest house for 6-7 months some time ago. She was how I finally managed to see the movie in the first place. She dished that the performance you see is not so far off the mark of the real man. Yeah, well, it still kicks butt. Willard’s house is so must and off-normal that it’s completely creepy. His workplace is impressively anachronistic and grimy industrial and depressing. His mother (Jackie Burroughs) is so horrifyingly close to death it’s hard to imagine Willard being afraid of anything. I was reminded many times of Mousehunt at several points during this film, and not just because of the rodents. This is billed as an arty thriller and Mousehunt was a slapstick romp, but both are far darker than a cursory preview could impart. The relationships between men and rodents take them places they would not normally go, in either direction, in both films.
A problem I had with Willard was that neither he nor “they” (collectively, the rats as one character) were consistent in their behavior toward each other, and ultimately betrayed their own goals, without achieving others, which was frustrating. It’s dark and surreal and even slightly grisly at places, but it goes in circles without really ending up in a new place. Willard finding strength in these squeaking surrogate muscles should end up differently, somehow.
Bruce Davison (seen only in images in this film) plays Willard’s late father, and played that role of Willard in the original movie. Hee hee. Rent it just to see the beast known as Big Ben. I don’t know what Australian outback they pulled that monster from, but I have had adult cats that were smaller.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 3/14/03
Time in minutes 100
Director Glen Morgan
Studio New Line Cinema
