(1981)1.5Fred BeldinJerry Lewis enjoyed a career resurgence with this typically zany comedy, directing and starring for the first time in years and ending up with one of the top moneymakers of 1981. Hardly Working opens with a fast-paced montage of classic bits from past triumphs like The Bellboy and Cinderfella, suggesting a return to form. More than most comics, Lewis's mix of surreal slapstick and vaguely insincere sentimentality is a matter of taste, and while Hardly Working isn't in the same league as a genuine classic like The Nutty Professor, those with a predisposition for his schtick will find plenty at which to laugh. Others may be annoyed by slow, slow, slow buildups to unrewarding jokes, punch lines that are telegraphed from a mile ahead, and insensitive racial stereotypes (he not only dusted off the old bucktoothed Asian caricature, but even used it as the main image in the film's advertising campaign). Lewis knows how to beat a gag into submission by repeating it stubbornly, far past its comic value until it passes from amusing to tiresome, and, finally, to hilarious. It's a subtle process that doesn't always work, so when he throws out a shopworn one-liner equating clowns with politicians twice within ten minutes, only the trained seals in the audience will laugh. As Bo Hooper, a professional circus clown down on his luck, Lewis can never decide whether his character is a genuine nitwit who creates anarchy wherever he goes or just a frustrated man forced by circumstance to pursue a series of unsuitable careers. Lewis vacillates between both, one minute rolling his eyes and pulling one of his patented rubbery goon faces, the next soberly insisting on his dignity and delivering a speech on the importance of being "somebody, not just anybody, but somebody." Perhaps the French film critics who so famously lionize Lewis' work can find a deeper meaning in the trials of this "everyman," though it's possible that any true profundity is entirely accidental. To the man's credit, Hardly Working succeeds as a gentle, family-friendly comedy that lacks the arrogance which sometimes simmers beneath the surface of Lewis' performances. Kids will love it, though there's no reason not to start them off with one of his more inspired early films.
