“Bruno”

Reviewed 12 July 2009 by Ted Faraone

3 ½ stars out of five; $8 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.

CANDIDE ON STEROIDS

“Bruno,” the second feature from the pen of comic Sacha Baron Cohen, is about as edgy as a film can be without alienating audiences.  Evidently it is a tad too edgy for the British Board of Film Classification, which limited it to viewers 18 and up.  110 seconds of simulated sex have been cut in an effort to get the limit down to 15 in UK.

Nonetheless, for auds not squeamish about exhibitionism, “Bruno” is a pretty funny flick.  Cohen, who stars, has made a career of creating preposterous characters whose interactions with Americans are hysterically funny.  His Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion reporter down on his luck, is the polar opposite of Borat, the title role of his breakthrough feature.  Bruno is dumber than dirt, beyond obnoxious, utterly full of himself, and totally screaming queer.  His journey from Vienna to Los Angeles, to the Middle East, to Africa, back to L.A. and then to the American South, is more like a series of skits loosely held together with a plot as preposterous as its lead.  Bruno offends nearly everyone he meets.  Like Candide’s story, it’s supposed to say more about the supporting cast than about the star, but it doesn’t always rise to the task.  Along the way, it does manage to poke fun at high fashion, Hollywood stars, Hollywood publicists, agents, rednecks, Israelis and Arabs, fundamentalist preachers, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, and the US Army, although the last is the least effective victim.  The Army comes off looking pretty good.  And Ron Paul looks better than he ever did on TV news.  But it is Cohen’s skill at physical comedy that largely carries the show.

Threaded into pic is a love story between Bruno and his assistant’s assistant, Lutz, played by Gustaf Hammarsten.  It’s a sort of boy-meets-boy, boy-gets-boy, boy-loses-boy, and… you know the rest.  The love story is interwoven with Bruno’s comical attempts to regain his fame (including an overwrought shot at going “straight”), which backfire every time, even in the surprise payoff, which hinges on a twist of fate found only in Hollywood.

Like many ventures on the edge, “Bruno” loses its way at times, but gets it together in the final reel.  Its 83 minutes reflect economical direction by Larry Charles and merciless editing by Scott M. Davids and James Thomas.  Any more would be overkill.  Tech credits are adequate, although sound recording deserves special mention:  None of Bruno’s heavily accented lines is inaudible.  Cohen shares screenplay credit with Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, and Jeff Schaffer.  He shares story credit with Hines, Mazer, and Peter Baynham.

“Bruno” features cameos by a gaggle of stars including Paula Abdul, Harrison Ford, Bono, Sting, Elton John, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Snoop Dog, and Slash of Guns N’ Roses.  They mark Cohen’s arrival in the establishment.  “Bruno,” distributed by Universal, is rated “R.”  It cannot be shown on US broadcast TV without heavy cutting.

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