by Jeffrey K. Lyles | Movie Review
Ah ignorance. You truly are bliss, aren’t you?
Upon telling anyone who would listen I was seeing “The Promotion,“ I was greeted with a resounding “what’s that?“
Sign No. 1 you’re about to see a dreadfully boring summer movie — no one’s heard of it. Not because it’s some artsy independent film but simply because the distributing company didn’t want to waste any more money promoting it.
To be fair, it sounds promising enough. Sean William Scott (“Mr. Woodcock“) and John C. Reilly (“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story“) star as two assistant managers vying for a promotion to manage their own grocery store.
For Doug (Scott), the promotion means finally being able to provide his wife (Jenna Fischer, “The Office“) with a single-family house. Another plus is they can finally leave the tiny apartment with walls so thin they can hear the exploits of their gay neighbors, a cliché bit that reeks of desperation from director⁄screenwriter Steve Conrad.
Scott is best known for his over the top, uninhibited role as Steve Stifler in the “American Pie“ series, from which he’s made a film career.
“American Pie“ was released in 1999 and nearly 10 years later, that’s the first role that people associate him with despite being in 20 other films since then. And rather than milk the role people really want to see him play, Scott opts to play quirky characters who are neither as aggressive nor as interesting as Stifler.
In Scott’s case, being typecast isn’t a bad thing if only he’d go along with it, as him simply playing Stifler would infuse his other characters with a lot more energy rather than his attempts to diversify his portfolio with more “serious“ roles.
Richard (Reilly), a transplant from Canada, has moved to the States to start a new life with his family and in his good-natured way.
Reilly, who’s been so much fun in his most recent comedies “Walk Hard“ and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,“ seems like he really knows what the audience wants but is restrained in a role that doesn’t let him be ... what’s the word ... oh yeah, entertaining.
In the plus column, he really has that Canadian accent down.
Conrad is doing one job too many as both the director and screenwriter. While the film is a brief 85-minutes, Conrad makes it feel much longer as he milks every scene for its last drop of humor even if said joke was only worth a chuckle to begin with.
Sure he manages to sneak in a few laughs here and there but those moments are pretty sparse and shockingly don’t involve the scenes with slap fighting, fart or masturbation jokes.
Only by the default of Doug being the narrator does Conrad tip his hand as to whom the audience should favor in this competition. Both Doug and Richard are so blandly written that neither stands out.
Had Conrad made the film more of these two nice guys descending further into desperate measures to get the promotion, it could have been an enjoyable comedy. As it is, it’s too similar to the regular rat race minus any excitement and there’s nothing worse than a movie about the real world less exciting than the real world itself.
Rating: One star
The Promotion
R; Comedy; 85 minutes
Director: Steve Conrad
Cast: Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, Jenna Fischer and Gil Bellows
