Word: murray
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...evening begins with Murray being mugged by two street punks, whom Murray misidentifies as part of this grand theatrical scheme. He forces them to redo the scene in several genres, with one emotional performance nearly reducing them to tears. Then he gives the befuddled youths his wallet, letting them run off, shouting "I want that back at the end of the show." But, even this gag would get old by the end of the film, so the movie is not solely powered by this idea that life only affords one take...
...greatest thing is that Wallace just continues to play along, not once flinching in the face of the torturous butchers, real bullets coming from his toy gun and plastique-engorged matrioshki. What would have broken up the frenetic timing of the film would have been a classic Bill Murray shriek, but instead we only see the unrelenting self-assurance which seemed to have disappeared after Ghostbusters. It's heartening that the same old funny is still there, while other "Saturday Night Live" grads in Murray's matriculating class continue to turn out mediocre family films for Disney...
Instead of breaking character, Murray shows an innocent admiration for the acting ability of those in his own personal theater of life, remarking upon how his leading lady (Joanne Whalley, of Willow fame) is a natural actress who never forgets her lines, and upon the amazing concentration it must take to play dead, as one corpse does in an early scene...
Those on the other end of the moral spectrum, the bad guy politicos, are also continually astounded by the efficacy of Murray's secret agent man act. The stock Brit and the stock Russian, working together to revive the Cold War, marvel at his cool aplomb and heartless ability to ignore the impending torture and death that could ensue if things go wrong. The clever folks in the audience can laugh and laugh, knowing it's really ignorance that gives such calm, whereas for Wallace it's the assumption that because he paid for the ticket, his safety in this...
...name of the game is irony and near-misses, as Murray steps into a traditional Russian dance at a diplomatic function, tossing about explosive nesting dolls, and flailing about to the music in true Murray style, much to the delight of the audience in the film, and in the theater...