Be kind rewind

Michel Gondry, best known for his direction of the critically-acclaimed Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, departs from his fantastic visuals, the integration of special effects and use of editing, for the new comedy Be Kind Rewind. In doing so, he abandons the attributes that make him the creative genius that he is, leaving the audience with a world much too small for his out-of-this-world vision.

The film is like a bigger budget, star-studded version of Clerks, video store and all.

Mos Def delivers a convincing performance as Mike, an energetic yet shy sales clerk determined to maintain the uneventful nature of the Be Kind Rewind, a video store/Fats Waller museum in Passaic, New Jersey. The store, which is on the verge of being demolished if it doesn't get adequate repairs, is run by Danny Glover.

But Glover's on-screen charisma can't save the film from Jack Black's overplayed exuberance as Jerry. Black's character is Mike's friend who becomes magnetized when attempting to sabotage the local power plant, which he inexplicably holds a vendetta against. His magnetization leads to the consequent erasing of all of the video tapes in the store. Their effort to restock the shelves requires them to reshoot or "swede" the movies, casting themselves and the community in their roles.

This film is easily Gondry's most accessible. The film makes the apt point that people watch movies in order to find an on-screen representation of themselves, often in lives unlike their own. The quirkiness of this comedy is difficult to dislike. However, without the guidance of Charlie Kauffman, the writer of his first two films, Gondry's screenplay is a dream-imaginative in its vision but too elaborate to be translated onto the big screen.