Beat the winter blues (to a bloody pulp)

It’s cold season and I myself have been under the weather. For anyone suffering from the same wintry blues, doctors recommend lots of fluid, rest and vitamin-rich foods – and if you’re looking speed your recovery you can watch the film Goon, the minor-leauge hockey comedy will get your lungs going and loosen the phlegm in your bronchial tubes – though the cough-laughing might annoy the people around you. The benchmark for all hockey-related comedies is Slapshot, and you can think of Goon as a combination of said film and The Passion of the Christ. I would have said 300 but the beating, bludgeoning, slashing, etc. Sean William Scott’s character Doug Glatt endures is pure, bloody torture. Like our Lord and Saviour Dougie sacrifices himself willingly for the greater good, thereby setting an example. But the broken cheek bones and blood stained ice shouldn’t detract from the fact that this films is pretty funny – it’s not very intelligent humour but it has some dandy one-liners. Be it following a brutal rendition of the Canadian national anthem or a dust-up on the ice everyone has got a great quip. My favourite line: “If I want any lip from you I’ll rattle my zipper”, and my favourite sign held by a fan “Glatt is Hebrew for ‘Fuck You’”. It’s dirty, low-brow humour – but it’s also a good look into the the goon business in hockey – something that’s actually been a contentious issue the last few years in professional hockey. It’s got the laughs that The Love Guru should have had – but too many fucks, shits and simulated masturbation to be a Mike Myers film – okay his films have plenty of the latter. Liev Schreiber does a fantastic job and gives the film an interesting edge.

I’ll admit, when I first read the synopsis for this film warning signs starting flashing. The storyline, a poor immigrant from the Paris suburbs takes on a job caring for a wealthy quadriplegic – please. I do not want to see a preachy pity-parade with the standard bromance storyline. I should qualify that statement. I was imagining the typical bromance – I Love You, Man, The Green Hornet, Wedding Crashers, Dinner for Schmucks, etc. – you know, where the two buddies have a falling out but realize there are underlying reasons for their behaviour which they then confront and become great friends again – I imagined that, interspersed with sobby scenes of bleak lives in the ghetto or as being someone severely disabled, playing (or shredding) my heart strings like Eddie van Halen on an Eruption solo – all the while trying to make me laugh. But, at the insistence of colleagues, friends and a the general public at large – I gave it a shot, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It’s not preachy, it’s not sappy, it’s a break from the standard and just a high quality, enjoyable film – with plenty of laughs. Both of the main actors François Cluzet and Omar Sy are both well cast and play their roles convincingly, the story is that much more heartwarming due to the fact that’s it’s based on a true story. I shouldn’t have been so sceptical at the beginning, I don’t think that a film would become the second highest grossing film of all time in France if it were as bad as I’d imagined, but then again those Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer keep making movies (and money).