(2000)
3
Rebecca Flint Marx
Combining some of the themes of Forrest Gump and What About Bob with all of the pain of watching a small child try and repeatedly fail to recite the alphabet backwards, Chuck & Buck is yet another entry into the ever-swelling "goofy man-child" genre. Directed by Miguel Arteta, whose previous Star Maps earned high acclaim on the independent circuit, Chuck & Buck was written by Mike White, whose past credit as a writer for Dawson's Creek is abundantly evident in his ability to mingle absurd situations with pale characterization. The film's central theme of a grown, successful man forced to confront the living, Tootsie Pop-sucking shadow of his past is an intriguing one, but as it's handled by its writer, director, and principle performers, it quickly degenerates into an exercise in tedious improbability. As Buck, screenwriter White is all nervous ticks and googly eyes; every time he whips out another Tootsie Pop, the film practically screams "Look! Freudian proof of childhood fixations!" Any sympathy Buck may get from the audience is repeatedly overshadowed by the inherent creepiness of the character; as Chuck, Chris Weitz doesn't fare much better. A study in unforced blandness, he doesn't so much act as react, and seems to be continuously looking for something -- possibly a paycheck -- that hovers just outside of the camera's view. For a film whose strength must rest on the chemistry and sympathetic qualities of its two leads, this is a serious problem -- one that Chuck & Buck never overcomes. Instead, thanks also in part to a cloying soundtrack, poor pacing, and its vague equation of homosexual urges with arrested emotional development, the film, like Buck's constant Tootsie Pop-sucking, comes off as a repetitive exercise in ominous quirkiness.
Chuck & Buck on AllMovie
Chuck & Buck (2000)
