Bedazzled sees director Harold Ramis return to the gentle comedy genre that he struck gold with in Groundhog Day. There certainly are similarities with the main character repeatedly having chances to try and impress his love interest but that's about where it ends. Instead we have a loose remake of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1969 tale of temptation, the main difference being that in this age of female empowerment the devil is played by Liz Hurley.
After a fantastic opening credit sequence of a global search for a suitable soul, we are introduced to the main character, Elliot Richards (Fraser), who is like an American version of Colin from The Fast Show, a computer helpline operative seriously lacking in social skills and sense of humour. His colleagues try their hardest to exclude him from their circle, while the apple of his eye has spoken to him once, to the extent of discussing the weather (it was wet). Without further ado, the devil visits him and offers him a faustian pact to the tune of seven wishes in exchange for his soul. The deal breaker is the prospect of impressing Alison, his sweetheart who doesn't even know he exists. Of course, this being a contract with Lucifer, the wishes manage to backfire and so we get to see how each of his utopias manage to go horribly wrong.
The concept of different wishes providing Elliot with completely different lives makes the film seem like a series of themed sketches and plays like a medley of Quantum Leap episodes. It also allows Fraser to showcase his comedy talents in portraying several subtly different roles, from sensitive new man to basketball star, which he does to great effect while still retaining enough of Elliot's core to make him recognisable. He is helped in this by some neat make-up work and in the case of the basketballer, nicely employed computer graphics to make him tower over everyone else. It's not just Elliot who is reinvented with each new wish but also the rest of the cast, who have great fun cropping up in very different roles for Alison and Elliot's workmates within each reality.
Hurley does little more than turn up in various stripper outfits that will undoubtedly have those nice people in the advertising department of Estee Lauder in cardiac arrest (nurse, policewoman, bikini, traffic warden, schoolgirl, cheerleader, serpentine temptress and French maid can be seen in publicity shots but obviously didn't make the final cut). This is actually the best performance I have seen from her, and although anyone who has seen her in other films will know this is nothing to get excited about, she revels in her role as Beelzebub and though her acting is as wooden as ever, she manages to occasionally show the flair for light comedy that we first glimpsed in Austin Powers. She also gets the lion's share of the lovely throwaway gags that litter the script (on God's gender: "Every man thinks he's a God, it just so happens this one's right"), which also has some nice little knowing touches such as a filing cabinet made of mortician's slabs and hounds of hell named Peter and Dudley to name check the plot's original creators.
Despite me thinking that I would inevitably be disappointed after seeing the visual A-Bomb that is the Charlie's Angels trailer sear it's way across the scene moments before, I found this film pleasantly diverting. It's a gently humorous yarn, which while not containing the gross-out set pieces of more recent comedies (with one knob joke and no swear words, this is no American Pie) has a nice enough premise and sufficient opportunities for chuckling to keep you entertained. The only disappointment is an ending that feels a little rushed and predictable, but I'm hard-pushed to think of an alternative to this studio-pleasing wrap up considering the mood of the rest of the film. It won't challenge or shock, but it's well worth a couple of hours of your time |
