Sunday, December 28, 2014


Movie Review

The Pallbearer (1996)

May 3, 1996

FILM REVIEW;Young Love at a Funeral

Published: May 3, 1996

The Pallbearer" finds David Schwimmer in the midst of a group of 20-something cronies as he starts a romance with a young woman to whom he was first attracted years earlier. This sounds like "Friends," but the resemblance goes no farther. Instead, this sleepy, charmless romantic comedy is a 104-minute occasion for considering the magic that makes a hit television series click. Expert timing, bright atmosphere and stylish, sympathetic characters are among the sure-fire elements that "Friends" has and "The Pallbearer" lacks.

Mr. Schwimmer's own funny, self-deprecating flair is well known to his television fans, but his first movie relegates him to a drab role. He plays Tom Thompson, a hapless 25-year-old living in Brooklyn with his cutesy, nagging mother (Carol Kane). The aimlessness of Tom's existence is interrupted by a phone call from another mother (Barbara Hershey), the platinum-blond parent of one of Tom's high school classmates. Her son Bill has died, and she wants Tom to be a pallbearer at Bill's funeral.

The thin and vaguely nasty joke is that Tom can't remember Bill and must fake his way through this crisis. And he had better not look insincere, since one of the mourners is Julie (Gwyneth Paltrow), a girl on whom Tom had a high school crush. Meanwhile, quicker than you can say plastics, Tom is seduced by Bill's mother. The film has its young characters talking knowingly about Django Reinhardt to establish their cultural credentials, but nobody mentions "The Graduate," from which "The Pallbearer" lifts part of its plot.

As directed by Matt Reeves and written by him and Jason Katims, "The Pallbearer" sustains a light, trivial tone while letting too many of its characters turn whiny and self-involved.

Ms. Paltrow makes Julie fetching enough to justify Tom's obsession, but her manner is as moony and helpless as his own. Tom's friends, played by actors including Toni Collette of "Muriel's Wedding" and Michael Vartan, add little color, although Michael Rapaport ("Beautiful Girls," "Mighty Aphrodite") again shows how funny he can be in a second-banana role. And the mothers don't help. Ms. Kane strains to be adorable, while Ms. Hershey's femme fatale seems to have wandered melodramatically into the wrong film.

"The Pallbearer" is further hurt by a nagging sense that no one behind the camera much cares about these characters, just as no one in the movie actually seems pained by Bill's death. The innate drama in Tom's growing up, finding love and getting away from Mom will hold only limited interest, even to die-hard "Friends" fans.

Two minor matters: David Lipsky's novelization of "The Pallbearer" is one of the rare movie tie-in books to have more depth and personality than the movie itself. And "The Pallbearer" can't even stir up a romantic mood through heavy use of one of the dreamiest, most beautiful pop songs in recent memory, Neil Young's "Harvest Moon."

"The Pallbearer" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes profanity and sexual situations.


Directed by Matt Reeves; written by Jason Katims and Mr. Reeves; director of photography, Robert Elswit; edited by Stan Salfas; music by Stewart Copeland; production designer, Robin Standefer; produced by Jeffrey Abrams and Paul Webster; released by Miramax Films. Running time: 104 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: David Schwimmer (Tom Thompson), Gwyneth Paltrow (Julie DeMarco), Michael Rapaport (Brad), Toni Collette (Cynthia), Carol Kane (Tom's Mom), Michael Vartan (Scott) and Barbara Hershey (Ruth Abernathy).

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