I first saw Greg Kinnear, on TV, way back in the mid-90s, when he was the host of “Later with Greg Kinnear” – I hear he beat out a weatherman from Milwaukee also named Greg Kinnear. He struck me as a mildly funny late night talk show host – good, but not great. Good enough to fill an hour reasonably well, but miles below the talents of the other guys doing the very same thing at the very same time – Letterman, Conan and even the naturally funny but otherwise bland Jay Leno.
Then, shortly after that, I remember Kinnear making the leap to the big screen in a laughless comedy called, “Dear God” (1996) and, a bit later, in a much darker role as troubled 60s TV star Bob Crane in Paul Schrader’s “Auto Focus” (2002). Despite the heavier material of AF, I don’t remember being all that impressed by Kinnear’s performance. Maybe I should revisit it.
So, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Kinnear in anything – TV or film. And, it looks like my initial impressions of his talent – again, based on one mid-90s TV show and two subsequent films – were pretty spot on. Having said that, maybe there exists, somewhere out there, a Greg Kinnear performance that would change my mind. If so, his work in “Phil” ain’t it.
Kinnear plays Phil, a recently divorced and deeply depressed dentist. One day, a patient of his, a university professor named Michael Fisk (Bradley Whitford), comes in for an appointment. All smiles, Fisk goes on and on about his superstar daughter and a fantastic trip he once took to Greece, where he made a great friend named Spiros. Fisk is so full of life that, by the time the appointment ends, Phil is deeply envious of him. Not only that, but he desperately wants to know the secret behind Fisk’s wonderful life.
So, Phil stalks him. He follows Fisk everywhere. He even follows him when he’s out with his beautiful wife and daughter. Unsurprisingly, it seems that Fisk’s wonderful existence is exactly so because of all the love in his life. Case closed!
Not so fast. Fisk’s picture perfect life suddenly turns ugly when Phil follows him to a wooded area and finds his cheery patient’s lifeless body hanging from a tree.
So, what gives? Why does a guy who seemed to have it all suddenly end it all?
To find out, Phil comes up with another wacky idea – pretend to be Sipros, that Greek friend Fisk made long ago. So, Phil becomes Spiros and, in no time at all, he’s in Fisk’s house having an intimate chat with his widowed wife Elisha (Emily Mortimer).
From there, the film quickly collapses. Clearly, in the right hands, any premise can work. The key words there being, “…in the right hands.” To pull this premise off, even marginally well, you need to have a gifted dramatic and comedic actor. Kinnear, while clearly competent, fails to check either of those boxes.
First off, it’s not really clear why Phil is so down in the dumps. Yes, he’s divorced. Yes, he has a chilly relationship with his teenage daughter. Yes, yes, but it’s all very generic and not very convincing.
Second, Kinnear, as a director and as an actor, doesn’t really embrace the Spiros con. His Spiros is bland. His Greek accent is barely there and, when you can hear it, it’s so unconvincing that you wonder how anyone could fall for it.
This failure to convince as Spiros is easily explained – he’s a nondescript dentist, not a seasoned comic with excellent impersonation skills. So, naturally, his take on a middle-aged Greek man would not only be unconvincing, but equally as dull as he is.
Fine, but then that only makes it doubly bizarre that he fools almost everyone he meets. How is that possible?
Then, I wondered if Kinnear’s take on Spiros was, in any way, hampered by the fear that, if he went too broad, he might insult the Greek community. No idea. Whatever he was thinking, it just doesn’t work. Worse, Spiros the fraud is one genuinely dull character.
On top of all that, you have the curious early introduction of Dean Wurtz (played with effortless smarminess by Kurt Fuller). Phil/Spiros meets up with the Dean of the University where Fisked taught, when he accompanies Elisha to help clean out her husband’s desk.
Excited to be meeting a true Greek, Wurtz lays some of the old country’s language on Phil/Spiros. Naturally unfit to respond coherently, Phil/Spiros answers with gibberish. Just as Wurtz begins pointing out that Phil’s response makes no sense, a colleague of Fisk’s walks in and interrupts.
That’s just pure laziness and a lost opportunity for Kinnear to show us his comic chops. He would’ve been better off having Phil/Spiros fake a coughing fit or by having him argue that Wurtz is the one who doesn’t know Greek or, even, by having Phil/Spiros make up some ridiculous excuse to get him the hell out of there.
At the very least, that would’ve made the moment more plausible. Again, I understand it’s a silly comedic conceit, but you still need to maintain some plausibility among all the nonsense. If Phil can pull off his con with such ease, then what’s the point? The potential for laughs lies in the comic conceit being a tightrope act, not a walk in the park.
Beyond the problems with the central comic conceit, “Phil” the movie isn’t very convincing as a drama either. Again, it’s decent, but not as compelling as it should’ve been. Everything in the film seems to hit with all the power of a foam hammer. Scene after scene goes by with little to no energy or impact. There’s nothing even remotely interesting about how scenes are shot or played. It’s all just one big bland bore and little of it makes any sense at all.
Watching the film play out it’s ridiculous premise in such bland fashion, I got the feeling that a far funnier and far darker film could be made out of the same material – there’s that “…in the right hands…” consideration again.
Sometimes you hit the bullseye. Sometimes you hit a couple of 20s. And, then, sometimes, you miss the board entirely and walk, red-faced, to retrieve your darts from the drywall.
Dull, far too safe, “Phil” spends much of its 106 minute running time hitting the drywall and not sticking at all.
