A
film review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net, September 27, 2012.
Pitch Perfect looks, sounds, and
feels like pretty much every other movie that features a singing or dancing
competition. With all the effort invested in the musical numbers, the dramatic
elements feel like warmed-over John Hughes. And it's not even good John Hughes
(like The Breakfast Club, which is
explicitly acknowledged). We're talking Career
Opportunities-type John Hughes. Pitch
Perfect would be a perfectly watchable, pain-free source of entertainment
if it was edited down to a highlight reel of various a capella groups covering
pop songs, but the connective tissue makes this movie seem like an overlong
version of the overexposed TV show Glee.
The
tired plot revolves around the rivalry between two a cappella groups at Barden
University: the all-male Treblemakers and the all-female Barden Bellas. The
Bellas are the perennial also-rans and 2012 looks to be no different until the
addition of several new members - loner Beca (Anna Kendrick), oversexed Stacie (Alexis Knapp), flamboyant Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), and scary Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) - shakes things up. But the Treblemakers get better
as well by adding incoming freshman Jesse (Skylar
Astin). Meanwhile, the leader of the Bellas, Aubrey (Anna Camp), is unimpressed by Beca's ideas about how to modernize
their routines, even though Beca has the support of Aubrey's best friend, Chloe
(Brittany Snow). Meanwhile, Jesse
romances Beca, and her initial opposition to a boyfriend/girlfriend
relationship melts.
In
true Rocky fashion, it all comes down
to the expected Treblemakers vs. Bellas battle at the Collegiate A Cappella
finals (a real event, apparently). A time-honored sports movie tradition is
observed by having announcers provide witty
play-by-play commentary for the cable network airing the event (they are played
by Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins, who's channeling
Fred Willard from Christopher Guest's Best in Show). Truth be told, some of the
most amusing lines come from these two. And, while the movie pays homage to
John Hughes by showing clips from The
Breakfast Club and incorporating Don't
You (Forget about Me) into the proceedings, it also throws a bone to lovers
of true gross-out comedy with not one but two instances of championship
projectile vomiting. This is serious upchucking - the girl spills about half
her body weight onto the floor. There's no reason for it except to give Pitch Perfect an edge (and make it impossible to look at poor Anna Camp without
envisioning a stream of brown sludge erupting from her mouth Exorcist-style).
The
cast is comprised primarily of fresh faces and TV actors. There are a few
exceptions. Anna Kendrick is using Pitch
Perfect to complement her role in End
of Watch (where she plays Jake Gyllenhaal's girlfriend); she has been on
the fast track since Up in the Air.
Rebel Wilson has also been visible in the past couple of years with memorable
parts in both Bridesmaids and Bachelorette. (She is allowed to use her
native accent here.) Anna Camp has done quite a bit of TV (most notably True Blood), but her most interesting
credit could be her in-the-buff role opposite the equally nude Daniel Radcliffe
on stage in Equus.
Although
the basis of Pitch Perfect is Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction book of the
same name, little beyond the bare bone premise of the source material has been
retained. Regardless of what the filmmakers claim, similarities to Glee are too pervasive to be coincidental.
The film in general has a TV feel to
it, which shouldn't be a surprise given director Jason Moore's pedigree. This is his feature debut; his previous
credits include stints behind the camera on four TV series. He also has a
background in stage directing, which may explain in part why Pitch Perfect comes alive whenever one
of the a cappella groups performs.
It's
hard to imagine Pitch Perfect being a
big box office player. It's a genial enough musical comedy but lacks any truly
compelling reason for an outing to a theater. Glee garners respectable TV ratings (although those have been
slipping) but its attempt at multiplex domination with a concert movie was an
abject failure. Recent musicals have not done well and there's no reason to
suppose this will reverse the trend. Those with an interest in a cappella music
would do better to download the soundtrack than subject themselves to the lame
material that drags this out from 35 minutes to nearly two hours. [Berardinelli’s
rating: ** out of 4]
Labels: college, comedy, music, romance, satire
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