Yes, there’s the former Harry Potter in a curly wig baring his (shockingly) ripped chest in an open Hawaiian shirt, but it's just not enough.
, always wonderful) buys it for him to play in secret. A scene where Al lets his talents loose at a teenage polka party is particularly inspired. These early scenes are where Appel finds the best alchemy of homage and playful skewering, but even then he's competing with the masterpiece of fake rock biopics,By the time Radcliffe takes over playing Al, his ascension to fame is quick. He improvises the words to his “My Sharona” knock off “” while making sandwiches for his dopey roommates.
By the time Evan Rachel Wood enters as her gum-popping version of Madonna, the movie spirals off the rails. It’s not that Wood’s impression is not. She’s clearly having a great time emulating the pop star’s put-on quasi Brooklynese, but the fictional spin on Madonna is uncomfortably retrograde. Framing the pioneering musician as a money grubber who seduces Al so he’ll parody one of her songs and make her even more famous just starts to feel icky the longer it goes on.
There’s a similar issue that works against Radcliffe’s go for broke performance as Al himself. The screenplay never finds a personality for this Weird Al beyond the stereotypes that it’s making fun of. You start to long for the real, sweetly nerdy Al instead of this alternate universe version you're watching. Radcliffe is basically playing Jim Morrison in oversized glasses—nothing resembling the actual reason you’re probably watching this in the first place.
Weird Al’s whole deal works because it’s unrepentantly goofy. There’s no commentary in replacing the lyrics to “Beat It” with “
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