Zoolander (2001)

As Luck Would Have It

Zoolander is a product of abundant good luck. This comedy could have taken more than a dozen wrong turns, right into a wasteland of idiocy. It is a credit to Ben Stiller's skill as a comic professional that his latest movie isn't a disaster. Though not exactly a raucous masterpiece either, Zoolander confidently diverts its audience into having a mindlessly fun time. If that is solely its purpose, it succeeds.

The movie's first lucky break came at its inception. Its protagonist, essentially a skit character named "Derek Zoolander" played by Stiller himself, was merely meant to be a parody of vacuous and self-absorbed male models. He was created for the 1996 VH-1 Fashion Awards. Stiller decided to take the idea and run with it, and so Zoolander became the subject of his own movie. However, the character is one-dimensional and one-note, as most skit characters are, and so far we all know that only "Saturday Night Live" cast members are foolish enough to create whole movies from such personas. But Stiller, hot from the two box office hits There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, took the chance and the movie got past its first hurdle: getting into production despite being a potentially bad idea.

Its second lucky break came in getting past its own subject matter. Zoolander is a spoof particularly of the male fashion industry. It's an industry that needs no spoofing. The images of buff, conditioned men strutting down a runway wearing outrageous clothing and a take-me-seriously look on their faces is a parody in and of itself. Also, who is going to get all these fashion industry references and jokes? It's a subject that the average moviegoer knows little about. Cameos of famous fashion figures are abound in the movie, but chances are 90% of the everyday movie audience wouldn't recognize more than one of them. The movie is therefore lucky because its main fallback humor is universal: stupidity humor. The joke is that the male models are terribly dim, and the things that Zoolander and his rival, Hansel (Owen Wilson), say and believe are so undeniably dopey that you can't help but to laugh. Not everyone will get the fashion jabs, but we can all get the stupid gags.

Lastly, luck comes in the form of the man holding this all together: Ben Stiller. In anyone else's hands, this movie would be a major discomfort. Stiller, though, has the amazing ability to make even the most hopeless of losers pitiable. Zoolander isn't obnoxious; he's just misguided and all he wants to do is something useful for himself and others. The main reason that this movie can even drive itself forward is this symapthetic portrayal of a sad and empty-headed character whose eventual fate you are curious to see unfold. That's a fancy way of saying Stiller can make you care for a really dumb, pathetic guy. It helps that much of the humor comes directly from Zoolander's personality and only some physical jokes are played at his expense. The movie gets a lot of mileage from characters doing long takes and pauses, dumbfounded by Zoolander's last inane utterance. It's all rather good-natured. Somehow, it works.

That's perhaps the best capper I can give for a review of this movie. It's a movie about a comedy sketch character portrayed as a pathetic sap while satirizing a subject most of the audience wouldn't care to see satirized. Somehow, it works.

Rating: 7/10

©Jeffrey Chen, Sep. 30, 2001

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