Get Smart
In this current era of Hollywood creative bankruptcy, which sees nearly every television show and comic book property given the big-screen treatment, a movie version of the 1960's spy spoof Get Smart was an absolute inevitability. The mixture of light comedy and spy adventure had potential franchise written all over it. But television properties ripe for a modern re-imagining are far from a sure thing. Back in 2005, fellow 60s sitcom Bewitched arrived on movie screens with a novel concept (a TV-remake-within-the-movie in which the woman cast as the lead was an actual witch) and the perfect Samantha (Nicole Kidman). However, despite positive possibilities, the movie turned out to be a charm-less failure offering no laughs and even less chemistry between its leads.
Pleasantly, this is not the case with Get Smart, which harbours an easy-going attitude and provides many funny moments, primarily because director Peter Segal knows exactly what to do with Steve Carell, the well-cast star of the movie. Carell excels at portraying the bumbling, yet lovable fool. His brand of humour is instantly accessible and eminently likable. There is an innocence that surrounds him, aura-like, and that quality alone makes him a perfect candidate to use the famous shoe-phone.
Carell's gentle charm keeps the movie afloat, despite a wafer-thin plot that involves a security breach at Control headquarters. As a result, the identities of several agents are compromised. Now short on staff, the Chief (played by the always-entertaining Alan Arkin) promotes Max (he is a mere analyst when the movie begins) and assigns him to take down the villains responsible for the breach. Max is promptly paired up with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway, all beauty and attitude in the role), one of the few agents not affected by the security breach.
Obstacles abound as the pair begin to track down the mystery-clad villains and it is here that Segal manages to stage a few moments of spy thrills that lend the movie a simple authenticity often missing from parodies. These moments represent both an homage to Bond movies and a unique direction for the material. Even though the story is comedic in nature, it provides the characters with actual spy work to do, offering a little more substance than gag-a-minute spoof movies that have become the norm nowadays. The sequences, involving laser beam security systems and parachuting acrobatics, are fairly forgettable, but they complement the movie's light tone very nicely.
It all adds up to a heartfelt little movie that operates as an enjoyable showcase for Carell's admirable abilities. Like all comic actors who have attained great success and popularity, Carell has a simple shtick and he never strays far from it. Happily, his shtick is easily digestible and has a lasting power that keeps the jokes from falling flat early on. He is an actor who understands the importance of making the audience fall in love with the character, so the laughs become more intimate and personal.
Get Smart is certainly not spectacularly original or overly intelligent, but it works as a big-screen version of a beloved 1960's television series because Segal and Carell treat the material with great respect and a solid understanding of what sold the premise in the first place. There is no reinvention at work here, but rather a sweet and funny celebration of the spirit of silliness.
