Starring: John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt
Director: Sean McGinly (Two Days)
Running Time: 1 hr 27 min
Release Date: March 20, 2009
Budget: N/A
Critics’ Thumbs Up: 68 %
“…satire with a warm heart.” Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“…the movie equivalent of handing us a business card.” Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Troy (Hanks), a law-school dropout, and Buck (Malkovich), an ego-inflated mentalist who claims to have built “The Tonight Show” – no thanks to Jay Leno, are searching for a purpose in this quirky, delightful comedy. Troy, who is Buck’s road manager, is our passive narrator as The Great Buck Howard is really a loving character study of the titular man who may or may not have lost his magic. While it’s a stretch to make a connection between Troy and Buck, the film is about their values of happiness over great success. Malkovich, however, succeeds in stealing the film with his ever-appealing idiosyncratic ways, and Blunt makes for a spunky foil.
