Smoochy nasty, but strangely full of heart

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This article was published 30/03/2002 (8904 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may feature a big plushy purple rhino, but don’t let kids anywhere near Death To Smoochy. This black comedy is in fact for parents — for moms and dads who’ve heard that simpering Barney say, “Remember, I luuve you,” one too many times.

So, grown-ups with a twisty sense of humour: hire a babysitter and enter the dark and dangerous underworld of children’s TV. Get ready to watch Mr. Rogers mix it up with Mr. Tarantino. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)

Mean and funny

Robin Williams, who’s been drowning in too many schmaltzy dramatic roles lately, gets mean and funny again as Rainbow Randolph. Randolph is a manipulative, malevolent clown whose high-flying career as a children’s entertainer — and cheesy merchandise hawker — is shot down by a payola scandal.

The network executives want a reliable and respectable replacement — someone who’s “squeaky f—ing clean,” are their exact words — which is how they settle on Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), aka Smoochy the Rhino.

Sheldon is an adorable sap who just shakes his head and says, “Well, how do ya like that?” when confronted with the endless corruption of his new world.

The murderous Randolph blames Smoochy for filching his time-slot, his penthouse apartment, even his ex-girlfriend Nora (Catherine Keener, playing a cast-iron cynic). As Randolph’s Johnnie Walker-fuelled paranoia escalates, he plans to go on a rhino safari.

Sheldon’s “fetish for ethics,” as one character calls it, also has the show’s producer, weasely Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart), nervous. (How can you sell Smoochy cookies to five-year-olds when your star objects to refined sugar and tropical oils?)

Add in Sheldon’s crass agent (Danny DeVito), the shadowy involvement of “aggressive” children’s charities, sentimental Irish gangsters and a heroin-addicted hitman, and it gets hard to say how long Smoochy is going to last.

Screenwriter Adam Resnick (who started out on Late Night with David Letterman and has worked on The Larry Sanders Show and The High Life) delivers a funny, sharp-edged script, full of insight into how corporate America targets children, or “wallets with pigtails,” as one character calls them.

Heart

Director DeVito manages to make the story nasty, but also strangely full of heart, aided by a perfect performance by Norton who conveys Sheldon’s unsullied idealism without ever coming across as phoney, sugary or sanctimonious.

This is no easy accomplishment, as a viewing of Patch Adams will prove. Let’s just say that Robin Williams should forget about embodying decency and stick to chasing it with a handgun, as he does so brilliantly here.