Things don’t go as planned. When Jerry has a close encounter with the plant’s high voltage, he becomes magnetized and inadvertently erases all of the VHS tapes at Be Kind Rewind. Eager to keep the store’s few naïve customers happy, Jerry and Mike team up to make their own versions of the popular movies stocked at the store. They refer to their films as “Sweded” versions of the earlier films. First up is Ghostbusters, followed soon by Men in Black, Carrie, and Driving Miss Daisy.
If the premise sounds absurd, that’s because it is. Are we really to believe that the customers wouldn’t know that the wool is being pulled over their eyes? Gondry’s accomplishment is in making us not care. Although the film is not a fantasy, we’re happy to go along with the ride, as we watch Black play another amusingly manic character, with Def as his straight man.
When the neighborhood community expresses interest in the “Sweded” films, the heroes achieve something they hadn’t sought. The locals long to be part of the movies, and they sign on as performers and spectators. Will the store’s revived popularity help save it from the wrecking ball? The silliness mounts as the “Sweded” titles multiply, until a law-enforcement official (Sigourney Weaver) arrives to put the kibosh on the operation.
The film’s conclusion, set to beautiful piano music, shifts away from the quirky humor and highlights a nostalgic love of cinema reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso. But Gondry’s film is, until then, a much more irreverent affair, sending up the not-so-sacred cows of 1980s and ’90s megahits while showcasing a fading film culture. That culture is not represented by the mainstream action/adventure and comedies that, as Fletcher comes to learn, dominate the selection at the successful video chains, but the documentaries and older movies that continue to cast their spells over viewers willing to give them a chance.
Be Kind Rewind is a hip film with a traditional message: The old ways may have to yield to the new, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the simple power of community. Be Kind Rewind does that. It won’t work for every viewer, but those who respond to Gondry’s strange style will treasure the experience.
Questions? Comments? Contact the writer at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.
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