In Bad Words, Guy Trilby is a contestant in the Golden Quill National Spelling Bee competition, but there is only one issue: he is forty years old. Guy (Jason Bateman) exploits a rule that says that contestants must not have passed the eighth grade. He qualifies because he dropped out of school before completing the eighth grade, and as a professional proofreader with a photographic memory, Guy dominates. He also needs to be sponsored by a news organization, and he has found one in the online magazine Click & Scroll, which includes having a reporter, Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn) follow him to discover why he is intent on ruining the dreams of dozens of middle school spelling champions. The abrasive Trilby isn’t keen on answering her questions, but he begins to open up when he meets a precocious 10 year old opponent named Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand). Despite being three decades older than him, Trilby identifies with Chaitanya’s youthful loneliness and decides to take him under his wing.
At its core, Bad Words is a twisted black comedy about a character you’d want to punch in the face. The usually likeable Bateman is totally obnoxious as Tirlby, yet his freewheeling attitude is a heck of a lot more fun than the the even more obnoxious spelling bee parents. He might be the lesser of two evils, but he puts a lot of people that deserve it in their places.
Two of those people are Dr. Bowman (Philip Baker Hall) and Dr. Deagan (Allison Janney), who hold the Golden Quill competition sacred and try all sorts of tactics to get Trilby to quit. Since Trilby is a nasty piece of work, their attempts don’t phase him. At first, it seems like he’s just being obnoxious for the sake of obnoxiousness. However, as Jenny soon discovers, there is much more to Tribly’s story that explains why he wants to turn the competition into a mockery.
Your enjoyment of Bad Words depends on how much you would enjoy watching Jason Bateman being pissed off at the world for 99 minutes and teaching a little kid bad words. It’s definitely a lot of fun, though it isn’t as thoroughly funny from beginning to end as other movies in the “comedy about an obnoxious bastard” genre (like Bad Santa). This is Bateman’s film directoral debut after directing serveral television programs (he is also the producer), and it’s the perfect type of small-scale comedy movie for him to get his career behind the camera going.
It’s nice to see Hahn in such a prominent role that is somewhat different, though her character definitely has moments of falling back into her usual sex-crazed antics for her on-screen characters. The young Chopra also adds a lot of fun because it is clear that he is one of those children who is highly pressured by his parents to be an academic all-star to the point that he is socially unprepared for life.
Rookie screenwriter Andrew Dodge made his name when this script landed on the Black List, and while it is a great concept I’m surprised it drew so much attention. That’s not to say the movie isn’t enjoyable, but it’s definitely not a must-see comedy because once the movie turns on its “serious” moments the laughs stop coming as rapidly. In other words, once it becomes “nice” it stops being “fun,” and I hate when funny movies decide to shift into “heartfelt” instead of carrying the laughs through the end. Sure, Bateman’s character is still flipping people off in the final minutes, but now he’s doing it with a smile on his face.
While Bad Words doesn’t necessarily do anything you haven’t seen before, it’s certainly a good lazy Sunday afternoon comedy and I think Bateman will direct some stronger films in the future. Still, if you like Bateman and these types of comedies it’s worth a look.
Rating: Not a home-run comedy, but has enough laughs to keep you smiling throughout (6.5/10)
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