Review: Willard (2003)
Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
WILLARD, a remake of the 1971 horror movie by the same name, is, well, unusual.
A deliciously twisted tale, it stars Crispin Glover as Willard, the Pied Piper
of ratdom. It more than stars him. It's almost a one-person picture, featuring
scene after scene of him conversing with -- thankfully they don't talk back --
his rat buddies. Although I'm still not convinced that Glover, a perennial
supporting player in such creepy roles as the Thin Man in CHARLIE'S ANGELS, can
carry a movie on his own, Glover pulls it off this time thanks to a most unusual
screenplay and to rats, both adorable and gross.
The story starts when Willard's anal retentive mother begins to complain about
the rats in the basement of their house, which seems to have been borrowed from
PSYCHO. Willard strikes up an instant friendship with Socrates, a
cute-as-a-button white rat. His relationship with Ben, as in Big Ben, an ugly
black rat the size of a rabbit, doesn't go as smoothly. Although Willard starts
off in control of his ever-increasing rodent brigade, he and Ben quickly become
locked in a deadly power struggle.
R. Lee Ermey is wonderfully acerbic as Willard's boss and nemesis. Laura
Harring (MULHOLLAND FALLS), on the other hand, sleepwalks through her part as
Willard's coworker and would-be friend.
The movie's best line comes when Willard is advised by his attorney to just give
up, sell the house and "start over." With wild eyes, Willard begins to scream
at him shrilly, "Start over? I'm almost done!"
Willard isn't a guy who likes trying new things. Even if he has one of the
worst jobs possible as a purchase order processor, he'd do anything he can to
keep doing what he's doing until he's dead and gone.
If you are the least bit adventuresome and willing to venture away from your
favorite film genres, WILLARD is a wacky, fun and funny comedy that's as dark as
a window-less basement -- full of rats.
WILLARD runs 1:35. It is rated PG-13 for "terror/violence, some sexual content
and language" and would be acceptable for teenagers with strong stomachs. An R
rating might have been a better choice.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 14, 2003. In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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Jon Popick
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
© Copyright 2003 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved.
Even from just its unusual opening credits and accompanying Elfmanesque
music, it's pretty clear Willard is the film Tim Burton should have made
after Ed Wood. That might not sound too flattering, since I think we're all
in agreeance (thank you, Fred Durst) that Mars Attacks! should have just
gone away. But it is a compliment. My hard-on for Daredevil and Jennifer
Garner aside, Willard is the best mainstream film to be released so far in
2003. Okay, that doesn't exactly sound like spectacular praise, either.
It's good, okay? I liked it a lot.
Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels) plays the titular Willard Stiles, a sad
sack in his late 20s who has a miserable home and work life. Sure, he lives
in a big mansion, but the place literally looks like it could fall apart if
somebody farted too loudly. Willard's father (played in photo and portrait
only by Bruce Davison, who was the original Willard in the 1971 version) has
been deceased for a few years, and his mother (a fabulously disgusting
Jackie Burroughs) looks like she may have been dead for nearly as long. Mom
calls him "Clark" because Willard is such a stupid name. She is also a
little clingy - at least that's what I'd call a mother who wants to examine
her adult son's bowel movements. He's a Norman Bates in the making.
Work isn't much better for Willard, even though he's employed by a company
his father created. Willard, perpetually decked out in one of his dead
father's suits, arrives late every morning to Martin-Stiles Manufacturing, a
company with the worst office lighting since Joe Versus the Volcano, only to
be berated by his over-the-top boss Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey). Willard
isn't legally allowed to be fired, so Martin does his best to drive him away
in the most emasculating ways possible.
Meanwhile, there's a burgeoning rodent problem in Willard's basement. He
tries to set traps but manages only to befriend a cute little white rat he
dubs Socrates. Before you know it, Willard has thousands and thousands of
rat buddies, and he trains them to do his evil bidding. Which, you can
imagine, means a whole lot of bad news for ol' Mr. Martin. But revenge via
rodent isn't what makes Willard so compelling. There's a whole problem with
rat hierarchy. Willard makes it clear that he likes Socrates the best,
which creates a problem for the largest rat, Ben (star of the 1972 sequel),
who acts like both a jilted lover and an evil yang to Socrates's innocent
ying. The two critters, which represent the internal struggle of a very
conflicted Willard, are like the angel and devil on his shoulder. Or, if
you don't want to read that far into the symbolism of it all, they're like
Gizmo and Spike from Gremlins.
You often hear people say, "I can't imagine anyone else in this role." I've
probably used the term once or twice (most recently regarding Daniel
Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York), but I'm not sure there is a better example
of this than Willard. This is the part Glover was born to play. Heck, he
even "wrote" a book called Rat-Catching. Not many people would be able to
appear this creepy, sympathetic, horrifying and vulnerable at the same time,
but Glover really nails it. It also helps that he gets to play off of
spot-on performances from Burroughs and Ermey, who logs his finest moment
since Full Metal Jacket.
That said, Willard is definitely not a film for animal lovers, as many are
killed in very disturbing and cold ways. But if you can overlook that,
you'll be treated to one fun, dark ride that features homages to Psycho, The
Birds, The X-Files (Willard was made by show creators Glen Morgan and James
Wong) and those expensive-but-dopey inspirational office posters. And how
can you go wrong with Glover himself crooning a remake of Michael Jackson's
"Ben" over the closing credits? Answer: You can't.
1:39 - PG-13 for terror/violence, some sexual content and language
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Laura Clifford
-------
"It's an awful name" his mother tells him, "from now on your name is
Clark." This is just one more burden for the painfully awkward young
man, verbally abused during the day by his deceased father's partner Mr.
Martin (R. Lee Ermey, "Full Metal Jacket") before returning in the
evening to his entombing, outdated home and the psychologically grasping,
physically decaying woman who will no longer call him "Willard."
"Willard, there are rats in the cellar" says Mama Stiles (Jackie
Burroughs, "Last Night") as the film's stop-motion opening credits
segue to black. Crispin Glover ("Charlie's Angels"), looking like
a Victorian clerk with center parted hair and old dark suit stiff
and shiny on his gaunt frame, ascends an old wooden staircase
resignedly to listen to his mother's latest rant. Writer/director
Glen Morgan and producer James Wong switch roles from their "Final
Destination" collaboration to remake the 1971 film about a social
misfit who bonded with rats adding heavy doses of Hitchcock's "Psycho" and
"The Birds" to the mix. The latter homage works stylistically, but the
"Psycho"
influence is too strong. Morgan provides no background for the
development of Henrietta Stiles's abusive, repressive behavior, especially
when contrasted against the obvious loving memory Willard has of his dad
(shown in family oils and photos by Bruce Davison, the original
Willard).
Gordon works plenty of humor into Willard's initial forays to the local
hardware store for pest repellents, aided by cinematographer Robert
McLachlan's ("Final Destination") artful angles and composition.
Willard is amazed to discover his mother is right (she claims to have
smelled rats from the home's second floor), then flummoxed when
the rats outwit his traps. When the sticky paper he tries next slows a fine
white
specimen down, Willard's heart melts and he rescues his new
best friend Socrates. There are more where Socrates came from, and
Willard discovers he can train an army of the creatures to advance,
retreat and destroy. But trouble looms in Ben, a huge brown specimen ready to
challenge Willard's authority when he doesn't receive Socrates's special
treatment.
Willard employs his rats to revenge his mistreatment at work, but the act sets a
chain
of escalating horror in motion and Willard's conflict with dominant
Ben forces him to become like the rat he grows to hate.
The original "Willard" is perhaps most remembered for the Oscar winning
Michael Jackson song named for its sequel, "Ben," which is coyly (and
too cutely) reused in the new film. Morgan was astute
to take a mediocre horror flick and attempt to explore new
facets of it and the casting of Crispin Glover was positively inspired.
Striking production values and a unique central characterization don't
overcome the weakness of the original story, which just never really
was compelling, but Glover, Morgan and his production team bring
enough fresh twists to an old tale to maintain interest.
Mark Freeborn's ("See Spot Run") production design is a star of the film
in its own right. The Stiles's home is one of those once stately
homes which have fallen into disrepair and preserve a way of life
several decades past. The Martin-Stiles manufacturing office is also
dingy and dated, attributable to the miserly ways of the firm's
surviving partner. The animal trainers and effects crew also get
high marks as hundreds of real rats (sometimes enhanced and only
rarely replaced with CGI, most spectacularly for a scene which mimics
"The Shining's" torrent of blood unleased from an elevator) always hit
their marks.
Glover makes Willard far more interesting than his predecessor did.
The actor appears almost handsome initially, a softness about his
eyes expressing his communion with his creature Socrates or his
fearful inward shrinking from society. As events bring out a
diabolical streak in Willard, he seems more angular and more
ratlike in his movements. His best scene is a frustrated outburst at
his mother's wake, unexpected and hilarious. Although her character
isn't given sufficient background motivation, Jackie Burroughs
delivers wonderful creep as Willard's invasive mother. She's
a withered invalid who can maintain a death grip on her walker
and her horrifyingly intimate questions about Willard's private
matters are both funny and offputting. R. Lee Ermey delivers his
stock shrieking villain in a part with little room for shading
while Laura Elena Harring ("Mulholland Drive") gives a nice air
of quiet caring to a sympathetic office worker.
"Willard" is a weird little movie handled with a disproportionate
care that makes it oddly worthwhile.
B-
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Robin Clifford
Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) lives in the rundown family manse with
his bedridden mother (Jackie Burroughs). His father had sold the family
business, just before he died a few years back, to his partner Frank
Martin (R. Lee Ermy) with the proviso that his family will be provided
for. But Frank hates the weak Willard and constantly badgers his old
partner's son, making the younger man's life a living hell. Things are
about to change for Willard, though, when he makes a very special friend
named Socrates in "Willard."
I had a couple of reactions when I first saw the movie posters for
"Willard" show up a while back in the theaters. I had seen the original
1971 version, starring a very young Bruce Davison, about 30 years ago
and was not impressed. It was an okay gross-outer but not a movie that I
would bother to catch again. I questioned the remaking of Gilbert
Ralston's original script (from his novel) as adapted by director Glen
Morgan - why bother? I thought.
Then, there was my other reaction: what a perfect choice in casting just
the right actor in the role of a dysfunctional character whose best
friend is a rat. Crispin Glover has always had a propensity for playing
weird, often dark and troubled people from "The River's Edge"
to"Bartleby" to the Thin Man in "Charlie's Angels." When I saw that
strange face staring out at me from the poster I thought there might be
some hope for the all-new "Willard."
Well, it turns out that this is a mixed bag of a film. Walking out of
the theater, I still asked the question: why? Aside from the creep
factor of thousands of rats swarming across the screen doing mayhem
there is little draw to the story by Ralston. But, helmer Morgan, Glover
and a very talented behind-the-camera team raise "Willard" a cut above
the original.
Glover brings the right kind of rat-like quality to the role - it makes
me wonder if his over-length front teeth are prosthetic or real - as
well as the necessary sniveling, whining and pleading quality that has
become the insecure Willard's trademark after years of his mother and
his boss constantly berating him. The only shred of hope he has is in
the company of a little rat he names Socrates that he found in the
basement of his old house. The critter is extremely smart and
immediately develops an affinity to the lonely Willard and a friendship
is made. But, there is extra baggage involved as a few thousand of
Socrates' rodent friends also take refuge in the Stiles household. One
of them, a really, really big rat that Willard dubs Big Ben, vies for
control of the house. Willard doesn't recognize the challenge and a war
of the minds ensues.
There is also the story of Willard and his nemesis Frank Martin. Once
Mrs. Stiles passes on to a better life, Frank knows that any agreements
with Willard's father are suddenly dissolved. He taunts the downtrodden
Willard with harassments that end in his termination. Then Martin rubs
salt into Willard's wounds with the offer to buy the Stiles home, the
only thing that Willard has left. Now, with a couple of thousand rats
under his control, Willard decides to take revenge on the despicable
Martin. You can guess what that means.
The production, led by Glen Morgan, helps to make "Willard" a better
film than it should be. The creepy Stiles house and Martin's offices are
nicely rendered by Mark S. Freeborn's production design. Special effects
- making 500 rats seem like thousands - are wonderfully creepy and, at
times, visually stunning. This is a rare event when the remake of a film
readily surpasses the original. I couldn't/wouldn't recommend the first,
but, for fans of schlock horror, I have to give the new "Willard" the
praise it deserves, especially Crispin Glover. I give it a B-.
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JoBlo
RATING: 7/10
http://www.joblo.com/willard.htm
For more reviews and movie wallpapers, visit http://www.joblo.com/
PLOT:
A lonely, belittled man who still lives, and takes care of, his grumpy aging
mother finds a friend in a cute white rat that he meets in his basement. He
loves the rat, he sleeps with the rat, heck...he even trains the rat and all of
his rat friends. It isn't long before the man requires the aid of his rodent
buds in his own life and that's when the fun really begins. Rats and the always
creepy Crispin Glover...ensue!
CRITIQUE:
This movie had my name written all over it: it featured a dark theme, starred
the loveable kook-meister himself Crispin Glover, had those "X-Files guys"
behind the scenes in Glen Morgan and James Wong and was loaded with a bunch of
friggin' rats!! After seeing the film's wicked trailers, I was hooked, line and
mousetrap. I tell you all this because I was slightly disappointed with the end
product of WILLARD but mostly because of my larger-than-life expectations. The
film did, however, maintain its incredibly dark theme throughout, showcase a fun
over-the-top fun performance by Glover and feature thousands of rats scrambling
around one very groovy abode. Sure, it didn't have enough character development
for my taste, but that's not really a major sticking point since I doubt the
filmmakers were shooting for a remake of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT or something. This
movie co-stars rats!! And even though the mother character was probably the best
played "annoying mom" since Anne Ramsey in THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN, the two
other leads in Laura Harring and R. Lee Ermey were respectively downplayed in
one small, one-dimensional role as well as one generic tough-as-nails boss part.
Glover was also a little one-note, but at least his note was entertaining as
heck and if you want to see a guy "lose it" like no one has lost it since
Nicholson in THE SHINING, check this guy out here: he's a nutball from scene one
to scene last and everything in between. Having said that, his character's
obvious nature didn't really pull me into any major suspense, but I had enough
fun watching him sweat, squirm, cry and go bonkers at everyone around him, that
I didn't need much else.
The story here is also pretty standard with Willard basically not liking his
boss, training rats in his spare time and well...you can kind of figure out the
rest yourself, but I also liked how the filmmakers injected a subplot about the
internal politics of the "rat gang", as well as some "sexual tension" between
them and Willard? A couple of scenes also stood out, prime among them being the
one featuring a cat loose in the house with the song "Ben" curiously playing in
the background (the tune is also sung over the end credits by Glover himself),
as well as one pretty emotional sequence in which a rat is killed, but you
really feel for the poor rodent (kinda like Wilson in CAST AWAY). The first one
is a classic scene but kitty lovers...beware! The CGI stuff was also held to a
minimum and barely noticeable (thank you!), although one very awesome looking
scene with Glover and the rats coming out of an elevator was a little obvious,
but also quite slick. Is the film scary or gory? No. Most of the stuff is either
implied or shown for a second or two. It does offer up plenty of goodies though,
chief among them being the unique performance by Glover, who eats up a couple of
major scenes, but also gives you a real sense of lonely, frustrated desperation
(by the way, why is that no one else notices that this guy is out of his
friggin' mind?!?!), as well as the dark, creepy set design and cinematography,
which are all top-notch across the board. Oh yeah, WILLARD also features one of
the coolest opening sequences that I've seen in quite some time as well as an
improbable, yet effective, relationship between he and the rats. A couple of
small in-jokes also made their way into the screenplay including a reference to
The Simpsons' Smithers (blink and you'll miss it), a mention of "Scully", the
name of Gillian Anderson's character on "The X-Files" and a wink to the man who
played Willard in the original 1971 version, Bruce Davidson.
All in all, this quick paced, dialogue-challenged, rat-infested "horror" flick
wasn't all that I was hoping it might be, but it did offer enough rodents
munching down, a great lead performance by Glover and plenty of creepy
atmosphere, to make up for its lack of character depth or surprises in storyline
(it's also the kind of movie that I can foresee watching a few times over). Fans
of Crispin Glover should also line up around the block for this one (if he has
enough fans to get around there, that is), because WILLARD is his ultimate part
with every close-up, every move, every quirky look and nervous twitch screaming
Glover!
Where's JoBlo coming from?
American Psycho (10/10) - American Psycho 2 (4/10) - Baby Boy (8/10) - Mouse
Hunt (6/10) - One Hour Photo (9/10) - Psycho (6/10) - Secretary (7/10) - Swimfan
(6/10) - Taxi Driver (10/10)
Review Date: March 10, 2003
Director: Glen Morgan
Writer: Glen Morgan
Producers: Glen Morgan, James Wong
Actors: Crispin Glover as Willard
R. Lee Ermey as Frank
Laura Harring
Genre: Horror
Year of Release: 2003
------------------------------------
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------------------------------------
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Susan Granger
Rats! They've done it again. Writer/director Glen Morgan has made a
remake of Daniel Mann's Gothic horror flick. Back in 1971, this perverse,
low-budget, rodents-on-the-rampage story was a hit, particularly at drive-in
movies. (As an homage here, the portrait in the parlor of Willard's father is
actually of Bruce Davidson, the actor who played Willard in the original.)
So now Crispin Glover is 30 year-old Willard Stiles, a shy office clerk
who lives in a decaying turn-of-the-century mansion with his ailing mother
(Jackie Burroughs). They have a bizarre psychological relationship that evokes
memories of Norman Bates and his demanding mother in "Psycho." "There are rats
in the basement," she complains. So Willard obediently descends to the furnace
room and gently vanquishes the vermin - except for one smart white rat whom he
dubs Socrates and befriends. Soon Willard commands legions of rats - led by the
aggressive alpha-male Ben - who will wreak bloody vengeance on his cruel,
villainous former boss (R. Lee Ermey) who stole the family business from
Willard's father. Obviously, the rats are a physical manifestation of Willard's
repressed rage, so the real stars of this scare story are the live and
animatronic rat-wranglers, including animal stunt coordinator Boone Narr, who
coax human-like responses from the seemingly ravenous critters. Socrates is an
Albino Norwegian rat, while Ben is an immense African Gambian Pouch rat, the
largest of the species in the world. Actor Crispin Glover ("Charlie's Angels")
caricatures the infantalized Willard's silent suffering with Laura Elena Harring
("Mulholland Drive") as his sympathetic co-worker. On the Granger Movie Gauge of
1 to 10, "Willard" is a creepy, cheesy 4. I recommend renting the original.
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Homer Yen
"Rats!"
by Homer Yen
(2003)
You'll mutter to yourself "Rats!" when you
discover that there is very little horror in this
horror film whose trailers promise an atmosphere
of cringing discomfort and off-center appeal.
You'll mutter to yourself "Rats!" when you
gradually realize that the more the story begins
to charge forward, the less cohesive it begins to
feel. And you'll exclaim "Rats!" when you see
with what kind of animals the creepy but affable
Willard (Crispin Glover) develops a psychic bond.
Despite some of these disappointing elements,
"Willard" is a unique option for the
30-somethings who are either looking for a
strange offering or for those who have wondered
how Crispin Glover might carry himself in a
leading role. We've been endeared to him from
supporting roles like the villainous Silent Thin
Man from "Charlie's Angel's" and as the socially
inept father from "Back to the Future." And, his
performance as the title character is the best
thing in this film.
With his chiseled facial features, his sunken
eyes, and his lurking demeanor, he affects a
ghostly presence that borders on the sinister.
And, with his pasty complexion and his staid
black suits, he looks like an undertaker that
really, really enjoys his work environment. But
what makes him especially eerie is his brooding
personality that he tries so desperately to
suppress. And that's not easy given the anxiety
he suffers as a result of his insufferable mother
(Jackie Burroughs) and especially his irascible
boss (R. Lee Ermey).
Both these characters add tremendously to the
dark feel of the film. The mother, virtually on
her deathbed, looks to be afflicted with gangrene
and is wrinkled almost beyond recognition. It's
the type of woman that only a son can love.
Meanwhile, the boss is spirited and loathsome in
that stereotypically barking drill sergeant kind
of way. He lives to make Willard's life a living
Hell. We can't wait until he receives a little
bit of justice.
The film is basically one big setup when Willard
finally succumbs to his bubbling anger and
unleashes his furry allies upon his boss. As
such, this film would have been better as a
focused character study where we see Willard move
from milquetoast to provocateur. However, as he
begins to orchestrate his payback, we begin to
feel distracted by two elements of the film's
story.
One loopy angle is a sort of power clash that
develops between Willard and a disapproving
rodent named Big Ben. This evolves into a life
and death struggle featuring knives, mousetraps,
and hundreds of angry rats. The other is that
while the atmosphere is appropriately dark, there
is a noticeable lack of dread. It's stylish;
it's gothic; but it's not frightening. There is
a scene in which an unlucky cat finds its way
into Willard's home only to discover that he is
outnumbered 10,000 to 1. But for the most part,
we feel that we've been exposed to unsanitary
conditions and need to wash our hands with soap
afterwards.
In the end, you'll like the performances of the
human characters, especially that of Glover's.
However, the rodents do not live up to their
scary promise. And, while it has great visuals
and a strangely affecting ambience, it manages to
achieve the feel of a better episode of the
Twilight Zone rather than its real goal of being
a cult classic. Rats!
Grade: C+
S: 0 out of 3
L: 1 out of 3
V: 2 out of 3
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Harvey S. Karten
# stars based on 4 stars: 3
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten
New Line Cinema
Directed by: Glen Morgan
Written by: Gilbert Ralston, book by Gilbert Ralston
Cast: Crispin Glover, David Parker, Jackie Burroughs, R. Lee
Ermey, Laura Elena Harring
Screened at: Loews E-Walk, NYC, 3/15/03
Hollywood has sometimes had great fun setting up mousy office
workers for laughs (think Amanda Plummer) but with "Willard,"
director Glen Morgan goes a step further by establishing a mousy
office worker for death. Since the creature's name is Socrates
students of Philosophy 101 will proudly predict an untimely death
(in this case for corrupting a place of business rather than the
Athenian state), and wouldn't you know that his death would stir
up more groans and cries of sympathy in the audience than would
emerge from the demise of his executioner!
"Willard" is a glitzy remake of the 1971 movie starring Bruce
Davison as the title character, a man who is friendless and lonely
with a domineering mother and a boss from hel. Director Morgan,
having received the rights to Gilbert Ralston's novel after an eight-
months' legal struggle, gives the moviegoing public a surprisingly
potent, darkly comic fable that could be called The Revenge of the
Nerd. Just as no one but Bruce Willis could have done justice to
the role of Lt. A.K. Waters in Antoine Fuqua's "Tears of the Sun,"
only Crispin Glover has the ideal sinister look of a psycho who
barely represses his justifiable violence until his humiliating boss
makes the fatal misstep of firing him.
Whereas the 1971 version, based as well on Stephen Gilbert's
"Ratman's Notebooks," was so wispy that it could have fit on the
stage of one of New York's shoddier off-off Broadway houses, this
time around "Willard" gets the full Hollywood treatment with
hundreds of computer-generated rats joining Willard's best friend,
a white mouse, and its darker, larger second cousin Ben. Here is
a tale of alienation, humiliation and revenge which is sly, only
slightly campy, and surprisingly engrossing throughout. What
puts this tale above the gross-out adolescent horror pics is that
the campiness is properly toned down, the slice-and-dice
convention is virtually absent, and Glover is next to amazing in a
role that he was born to play.
Watching Crispin Glover as the title character working in a
funereal suit day after day (while others are dressed casually as
would be more appropriate in the dismal spaces of a
manufacturing plant) recalls the actor in a thinner role recently as
Bartleby based on the Herman Melville novella and often played
by small theatrical groups. Whereas Bartleby would "prefer not
to" each time the boss asks him to do something, Willard
desperately needs to hold on to his job preparing purchase orders
for the plant now being run by Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey) since
Martin's partner and Willard's father had died. Because Willard's
mother, Henrietta Stiles (Jackie Burroughs with so many wrinkles
she could be used as a "before" shot in a Botox ad), is ill, Willard
must take special care of her and is often late to work. Poorly
treated by the boss who cannot fire him because of a contract the
employer made with Willard's father Willard is eager for revenge
and, having discovered a basement loaded with rats that breed
faster than rabbits, he trains the creatures in preparation for their
use as hit rats.
Each of the principals stands out for a distinct personality.
Laura Elena Harring (the bombshell brunette from "Mulholland
Drive"?) is the caring, sympathetic co-worker who tries to befriend
the unhappy Willard against the machinations of the angry
boss played well by R. Lee Ermey, who in one scene reaches
distractedly for his computer mouse and ends up holding a real
one. Jackie Burroughs is the mother that only a son could love,
with the face of a Shar-Pei, who badgers her son so much to find
a girl friend (which is the last thing she really wants him to do)
that Willard doesn't know whether to help tuck a pillow under her
head or press it down over it.
"Willard" is a horror movie that properly downplays the
traditional horror aspects (the rats are not all that scary) but
instead does the right thing in punctuating the unusual character
of its title figure, with the rodents serving principally as a metaphor
for the man's inner turmoil.
Rated PG-13. 95 minutes. Copyright 2003 by Harvey Karten at
Harvey...@cs.com
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Dennis Schwartz
from Mr. Ralston's novel Ratman's Notebook; cinematographer: Robert McLachlan;
editor: James Coblentz; music: Shirley Walker; cast: Crispin Glover (Willard
Stiles), David Parker (Detective Boxer), Jackie Burroughs (Mrs. Stiles), Kristen
Cloke, (Dr. Bludworth), Laura Elena Harring (Cathryn), R. Lee Ermey (Frank
Martin), Kim McKamy (Ms. Leach); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producer:
James Wong; New Line Cinema; 2003)
"The problem is that "Willard" never becomes anything more than a ham-fisted
revenge-of-the-nerd horror fable."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Willard is a remake of the 1971 thriller "Willard" starring Bruce Davison in the
title role as the quivering young man who is afraid of his own shadow and fits
the classic Freudian description for a momma's boy unable to cut the umbilical
cord. The older version had more feeling and humor than this almost leaden
special effect version, one that tried not to be campy yet was still not serious
enough to be taken as anything but campy.
It's still about Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover), a thirty-year-old loner, loser
and weirdo living at his stately 19th century family mansion in suburban
Westchester County in New York with his possessive, belittling, widowed, frail
and elderly mom (Jackie Burroughs), and he is still haunted by the death of his
imposing manufacturer father. He owes his job to his dad, who because of bad
debts was forced to sell his share of the business to Frank Martin but
stipulated in the contract that Willard was never to be fired (R. Lee Ermey
plays this one-dimensional Martin role in the same way Ernest Borgnine did in
the original and uses the same acerbic speech delivery he used as the
drill-sergeant in Kubrick's Full-Metal Jacket).
When Willard discovers rats in the house because of the old houses in the
neighborhood being sold and the new owners remodeling, he therefore first tries
getting rid of them with the usual pest control traps but decides to befriend
them after feeling sorry for a white rat he caught in a sticky glue trap and in
a change of heart freed. He keeps the rats in his basement as pets, and the
white rat becomes his best friend and is given the name Socrates and is allowed
to sleep with him. Another rat about as big as a dog he names Big Ben, but looks
upon him with disfavor because he doesn't obey his commands like Socrates.
In the workplace at his menial office job, his sadistic boss never misses a
chance to humiliate him. Willard is accused of falling behind in getting the
purchasing orders out and an attractive office temp named Cathyrn (Laura Elena
Harring) is hired to do his job, as everyone in the dreary office setting
witnesses the boss unmercifully chew out the flustered Willard. In another ugly
incident, boss Martin goes off on a nasty rant about Willard's poor work habits
and locks him in the elevator. Cathryn feels sorry for the hapless lost soul and
frees him, and then she tries to be friendly and nurturing toward him. But
Willard can't relate to humans as well as he can to rats. In this flick the rats
are out of character and are envisioned as predictable creatures who all follow
Willard's marching orders except for the most fearsome Ben.
Willard is bent upon getting revenge on his evil boss who constantly mistreats
him and is putting pressure on him to sell his house and quit his job. So
Willard becomes the Pied Piper of the rat-pack and packs into his suitcase the
500 real rats plus those that were CGI animated, in a seamless manner so you
couldn't tell the real ones from the fake, to invade Martin's garage and eat the
tires off his snazzy new Mercedes-Benz. The revenge motive picks up greater
urgency when tragedy hits Willard at home, and on top of that Martin
unceremoniously cans him and is about to kick him out of his prized house which
is the only security blanket he has left.
Director/writer Gilbert Ralston attempts to transform Gilbert Ralston's novel
Ratman's Notebook into a Hitchcock-like psychological horror drama that would
have recognizable elements of Psycho and The Birds. He purposely updated the
film with that in mind while keeping the same plot, as it's still a creepy story
about a troubled loner who gets overwhelmed by his situation in life and cracks
up. The anger in Willard grows and the rats are humanized to take on his anger,
as they are called upon to act out Willard's wishful fantasies to get the main
culprit who has demeaned him the most. But what fails to work in favor of the
pic, is that Willard is too much of a nut job and his conversations with the
rats are meant more to amuse than for the viewer to sympathize with him.
The film not only lacked humor (one of the film's more funny bits is naming a
pest control Tora Bora) and was not scary (the hundreds of rats squirming around
the kitchen counter-tops looked as if they were in a Tom and Jerry cartoon), but
worst than that was its failed love interest subplot which took up so much film
time and went nowhere. It was needlessly clunky and way too underdeveloped to be
interesting. Also, the film relied much too heavily on Crispin Glover's hammy
performance. He's the caricature of an intense milquetoast who is capable of a
temper tantrum and of having a bleeding heart, but that two-dimensional
characterization is not enough for the film to get past its Psych 101 lesson.
The pasty faced, jet black-haired Glover, whose haircut is in the Adolph Hitler
style, varies in his hysterics over loathing his boss or becoming so frightened
he can't function or when at home caressing in a loving way Socrates. When
hysterical his voice becomes shrill and his facial features become contorted.
Glover gnaws the scenery even more than the rats do. One expects a film like
this to be cheesy, but not one with such a cold and empty heart. It was hard to
maintain a sympathy for Willard the nuttier he acted, and it was even harder to
find much of a psychological story that had any freshness or validity. The
problem is that "Willard" never becomes anything more than a ham-fisted
revenge-of-the-nerd horror fable.
REVIEWED ON 3/23/2003 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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