How To Be – Review ⁰

by Sinoun • Reviews • Tags: How To Be, Robert Pattinson

I finally got around to watching How to Be, the indie-flick starring Robert Pattinson which I had been looking forward to for some time now.

Here’s the thing with almost every single movie I anticipate - it never meets my expectations (with the exception of The Dark Knight).  Granted, I have a tendency to create unrealistically high expectations, so when movies fail for me, they usually fail big time. How To Be however, was only a moderate fail.

So the story centers around a young lad named Art (played superbly by our hero of the moment, Robert Pattinson) whose miserable existence prompts him to invite an acclaimed self-help author to make him better. “I’m going to get fixed” is how Art aptly puts it. As far as first impressions go, being the socially-maladjusted, awkward and depressed individual he is, one could agree that he does indeed need “help” with integrating himself into conventional society.

Art is well-played and skillfully made to look like the social loser he’s supposed to be. The odd pairing of too-short gray slacks with pink Converse shoes, the unruly mop and the lanky stride are all designed to subvert his intense good-looks. (And while this is indeed a far cry from the suave and mysterious Edward Cullen, it’s virtually impossible to mask his inherent handsomeness).

Robert Pattinson is extremely like-able and pitiful at the same time - which means he’s done his part well. He’s funny when he needs to be and this helps break the monotony of the movie. When Art gets fired from his job, he ruefully protests “but I’m a volunteer”, and when his girlfriend breaks up with him, he fabricates stories of a woeful childhood hoping she’ll sympathize with him. And when she doesn’t, we certainly do. Or at least I do anyway. (Come on now, it’s Robert Pattinson!)

Having an endearing central protagonist is the only way to keep the film afloat, because unfortunately Art is surrounded by characters who just aren’t that appealing – namely, his two friends whom I found to be rather annoying and his parents, who, though were just carrying out their intended roles, also left me cold.

Dr. Levi Ellington, the self-help author added a fun dimension to the film, but isn’t used to his full potential, and when the script calls for him to state the unhumorus obvious, his character becomes stale.

Now, why was I disappointed with the story?

Well, here were my expectations:

I like movies that can change my life. Since I’m kind of undergoing my own quarter-life crisis I was hoping for something that would inspire, that would offer up answers in the “what is life all about?” department. Of course, that’s just a lofty expectation, because expecting a movie to “change your life” is like hoping a song will solve your problems – these can empathize with you, but can never replace personal real-world experience… and I’m acutely aware of all this… but still. Still.

Secondly, seeing as how the film bills itself a comedy, I was looking forward to witnessing some truly comedic moments, you know, moments that would force me to slap my fellow spectator out of sheer laughing madness or something. I easily recognized all the moments where I was supposed to laugh, but frankly those moments were just too trite to be funny. Maybe it’s a British humor thing that I didn’t quite grasp, I don’t know. If I had to choose one word to describe the film, that word would be “quirky”.

Now this is hardly a bad movie, for I’ve seen much worse (New in Town for example – a new low in terrible), but it all feels too simple. Here’s a guy who’s having a lot of trouble adjusting to life, who’s got extremely weak ties with his parents, who’s jobless and loveless and who strongly believes he needs help. But most of all, he just doesn’t know how to be “normal”. He feels there’s something inherently wrong with the way he is and he just can’t figure it out.

Of course, normalcy is a social construct. I mean, how many people are truly “normal” anyways, right? We all have our little idiosyncracies, our flaws and our insecurities. We just try the best we can to adhere to the standards set out for us, whether we truly want to or not. It isn’t too long until Art realizes that the people around him are no less “maladjusted” than he. For instance, his parents’ icy detachment and lack of emotion, and his friend’s phobia of literally stepping out into the real world. Art then, is no more an anomaly than anyone else.

As these truths get discovered you can appreciate the movie’s intended message. How to be? Just be yourself. What to do in life? Just do what you like. It’s plain and simple – of course no one needs a movie to clarify this. And perhaps it’s my own fault for hoping a movie will yield the key to my happiness. Still, this over-simplification leaves me unsatisfied and uninspired.

I guess it was the idea of the movie that I really liked. When I go back and watch the trailer I think of how much potential it had, how enlightening and entertaining it could have been. I think of how it could have spoken to a generation of kids who’s lives are somewhere in limbo between late adolescence and true adulthood, who lack the direction to steer their lives towards a meaningful course. Films are gifted with the power to transform, or at least to engage its viewers in a dialogue of insightful awareness and introspection. But when they under-utilize their strengths they remain nothing more than a moving picture-book of mediocrity.

How to Be sails along quite nicely if you’re in it just for the Pattinson-ship and the random, temporary funnies as well as the cute audio tracks dispersed throughout. And yes, while it is a film that strums its own tune, it never quite blossoms into a full song – the melody’s there, but lyrically, there’s nothing memorable here.