Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) owns a one of a kind, video only, rental store in Passaic, New Jersey, home of the great musician, Fats Waller. Though Mr. Fletcher touts his building as the birthplace of the great artist himself, Be Kind Rewind Video and Thrift Store is a neighborhood landmark that's long gone under to its big DVD wielding chain counterparts. Now it's being overtaken by a city revival project threatening to tear the building down if Fletcher can't bring it up to code. While Fletcher takes a trip to find a way out of fate, he leaves his counter boy Mike (Mos Def) in charge. But soon after, Mike's lonely, eccentric friend Jerry magnetizes himself at an electrical plant and inadvertently wrecks all the video tapes in Fletcher's store with his field of attraction. Now, in order to satisfy a slew of finicky costumers (including a Driving Miss Daisy fanatic fittingly played by Mia Farrow) the boys must film their own recreations of cinema's classic hits and pawn them off as superior substitutes.
For all the forewarning I endured, watching this movie was a surprisingly simple pleasure. Directed by the man that brought us Eternal Sunshine and The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind is only slightly less creative than its big siblings, and that's enough imagination for me. Mike and Jerry's journey from small town nobodies to the founders of a new inspirational breed of independent film makers is quite the joy to watch. The beautiful shots of their makeshift movie sets show off the type of light hearted, easy-to-under-appreciate creativity most of us haven't accessed in decades. And, of course, getting to see Mia Farrow and Danny Glover reenact scenes from Driving Miss Daisy is a pretty sweet treat.
There is a rumor going around that Be Kind Rewind's plot isn't feasible because one buck VHS rentals no longer exist (even in old time Mom and Pop video stores.) But there really isn't any reason to determine the film is set in 2008 verses half a decade before. Like any nice work of fiction, Be Kind Rewind has created a world that's so tight and complete that it seizes on even the smallest chance of plausibility. And the emphasis on low budget entertainment is part of what makes this film so funny, so charming; here is a town full of folks who think art is so inherent in life that it should damn well be for free.
I wasn't much of a fan of Mr. Black here, however I don't think this is entirely his fault. It could just be that the camera guy spent a few too many odd seconds lingering on Jack's goof face that I didn't feel too much punch in his performance. Mos Def was certainly well cast and I was pretty impressed with his portrayal of the retail worker who's humble, yet hard pressed to fail. My biggest criticism of Be Kind Rewind is simply its lack of self determination from the start; previews for the movie exhibit all sixty seconds of its physical comedy while the movie as a whole shows off much more small town sentimentality than slapstick humor.
Liz Licorish
LizFlix@ElitesTV.com
Published February 24, 2008
