Bedazzled

Starring:

Brendan Fraser as Elliot Richards

Elizabeth Hurley as The Devil

Frances O’Connor as Alison Gardner

Miriam Shor as Carol

Toby Huss as Jerry

Orlando Jones as Dan

Paul Adelstein as Bob

Summary:

Bedazzled is a really funny movie with a wonderful cast. However, despite being hilarious most of the way through, the film falls flat at the end.

Story:

Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser) is a guy who wants nothing more than to have friends and a relationship with co-worker Alison Gardner (Frances O’Connor). However, nobody likes him because he’s a geek and a social misfit, and he simply can’t get the courage up to talk to Alison. Depressed and lonely, Elliot’s situation looks grim.

That’s when the Devil steps in.

In the form of a beautiful temptress, Satan (Elizabeth Hurley) offers a deal to Elliot – she’ll grant him seven wishes in exchange for his soul. Elliot doesn’t believe her at first, but soon realizes she’s the real thing. He’s reluctant to agree, but the Devil makes him believe accepting the wishes is the only road to happiness. Elliot agrees to sell his soul.

But as you would expect, Satan won’t let him go that easily. As Elliot makes his wishes for happiness, love, and riches, the Devil finds a way to put a twist on things and screw it up. As you may have seen in the trailer, Eliot wishes to be rich and powerful. However, he ends up as a Colombian drug lord (speaking Espanol, no less) in the middle of a disagreement with Russian drug runners. Elliot voids the wish and gets out of the situation, but must use another one of his wishes for another shot at happiness. Needless to say, each of the other wishes goes horribly wrong until Elliot finally realizes the errors of his ways and sets things straight.

What Worked:

This was a really funny movie. Brendan Fraser shows just what a versatile actor he is in this film. He’s played everything from a cartoon character to an action hero to a dramatic lead. In this film he plays everything in-between. As Elliot makes each of his wishes, he’s thrown into different lives. Fraser plays a drug lord, a basketball star, the world’s most sensitive man, and more. He puts a hilarious spin on each character and makes each one funny in its own way. You can tell he’s having fun doing it, and even the other cast members seem to be cracking up during the shots.

Elizabeth Hurley also does a good job in this film. She seems to know that her role is to be the seductive temptress, and she completely eats it up. She plays really well off of Brendan Fraser and does a good job switching between Eliot’s best friend and the incarnation of all that is evil. She also seems to have a lot of fun doing it.

But the rest of the cast really helps keep this film afloat. As Elliot hops between different lives, each of his friends come along with him. Alison changes between the lives, too. So while Fraser has to switch between characters and roles, the rest of the cast had to as well. Frances O’Connor does a great job of switching back and forth, particularly so at the very end of the film. Orlando Jones does a hilarious job as a sports commentator in one scene.

Overall this is an enjoyable film with several classic moments. It’s worth checking out.

What Didn’t Work:

Unfortunately, the movie completely fizzles by the end. As Elliot runs out of wishes, the storyline runs out of steam. The movie was absolutely hilarious up until the inevitable serious moment and resolution of conflict. It was rather anti-climactic.

The movie even goes so far as to make the Devil kind of a good guy (or girl) by the very end. Through the whole film the point was made that Satan was two-faced and trying to screw over Eliot. By the end the two character are like old buddies and the Devil is portrayed as some misunderstood agent of good. They came just short of having a group hug.

Luckily, though, the previous scenes in the film make the ending somewhat bearable, so Bedazzled is still worth checking out.