Text size:

'Be Kind Rewind'

Rating:

BY GENE SEYMOUR | gene.seymour@newsday.com

February 22, 2008

In the first place, well, I mean, come on ... a video store? In 2008? The very concept of "Be Kind Rewind" threatens to leave us scratching our heads and wondering at the outset whether writer-director Michel Gondry is indulging yet again in the kind of time-and-space warping that worked great with his "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," but not so well with "The Science of Sleep."

Apparently, time has pretty much stood still in Passaic, N.J., where a neighborhood video store somehow manages to hold on despite its owner, a kindly, avuncular man named Fletcher (Danny Glover), being pressured to sacrifice the property to local developers.

For years, Mr. Fletcher, a devotee of Fats Waller, has spun a persuasive fantasy about his store being the jazz icon's birthplace. His myth has embedded itself deeply into the spotless mind of his sales clerk Mike (Mos Def), whose dimmer, if far less composed best friend Jerry (Jack Black) lives in a nearby trailer and dreams of sabotaging the local power plant.

Jerry's latest abortive effort at electrical subterfuge leaves his whole body magnetized. Thus on his next visit to Mr. Fletcher's store, Jerry's magnetized self effectively erases the entire inventory. The good news is that Mr. Fletcher's off on a weeklong business trip. The bad news is that Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), the kind of nice, dotty lady you find in every neighborhood anywhere, demands to borrow "Ghostbusters" by the end of the day.

So Mike and Jerry decide to videotape their own handmade version of "Ghostbusters" using whatever means they have at their disposal. Apparently, neither Miss Falewicz nor the neighborhood kids who watch the bogus version mind what they see, even with hummed-in background music and a 10-minute running time.

Within days, Mike and Jerry's "sweeded" versions (don't ask) of "Rush Hour 2," "Driving Miss Daisy," "When We Were Kings" and other store faves become the talk of the neighborhood.

Of course, bad stuff like copyright lawyers (one played to a quiet storm by Sigourney Weaver), graffito bugs and the impending wrecker's ball conspire to spoil this goofy little paradise.

"Be Kind Rewind" almost has to force its way into comedic grace and, perhaps by design, comes across as hokey and amateurish as the faux features Mike and Jerry slap together from scratch.

Still, even though its thin conceit strains and stumbles into being, Gondry's movie somehow ingratiates itself to the dauntless dreamer that lives within each of us, whether we're besotted with pop culture's junk pile or not.

BE KIND REWIND (PG-13). A slow-witted video-store clerk ( Mos Def) and his even dimmer friend ( Jack Black) make their own low-rent versions of Hollywood movies. And nobody knows or cares about the difference. Thin, airy premise threatens to dissolve this confection. But overall, it's a doofus movie with a bigger-than-average heart. With Danny Glover, Mia Farrow and Melonie Diaz. Written and directed by Michel Gondry ("The Science of Sleep"). 1:40 (sexual references, mild vulgarities). At area theaters.