A Matter of Taste

I was reflecting on Ben Stiller's career recently and found myself very split about everything that he has offered the masses. I love whenever he tries his hand at being an auteurish writer/director/star evidenced by the fantastic comedy romps Zoolander and last year's Tropic Thunder that blend outrageousness with actual sentimental comedy. And his characters in both are outlandish and hysterical.

In addition to these personal moments, he has also managed to completely steal some movies through his portrayal of some ridiculous characters in which he completely loses himself in the quirks and nuances of some particularly hateful people. In this case, I'm thinking of his roles in Heavyweights, Happy Gilmore, Dodgeball and even The Royal Tenanbaums to a certain extent.

These characters are not what the movies are remembered for but everytime I see them again (on tv of course) I find myself amazed at how he basically set a precedent for the Will Ferrell ignorant archetype that the team of Danny McBride and Jody Hill has perfected in recent times (more on that later). Like take his retirement home wacko in Happy Gilmore. He only apears in a few scenes, but when I was watching it, a mere glipse of the home reminded me of the hilarity which was about to ensue as Ben Stiller was about to intimidate Happy's grandma.

The problem is, these priceless characters are juxtaposed rather negatively with his romantic comedy roles where he always seems to try and act like the down-to-Earth guy that's frustrated with the ridiculous people around him. (Perhaps this rom-com character has become exasperated with the much funnier characters that replace him) In this vein, we're talking Meet the Parents, Duplex, Along Came Polly, The Heatbreak Kid, even Starsky and Hutch (where he's supposed to be outlandish) and my much beloved There's Something About Mary. Whenever I think about his roles in these films, I think of him yelling in that Ben Stiller, frustrated way such as appeared in all the Heartbreak trailers as I remember. I absolutely hate this character even if some of the movies are close to my heart.

The only conclusion I can come up with is that he's doing a Steven Soderbergh type thing where he does mainstream rom-coms in that realistic way making his independent outlandish turns a reality in an unspoken deal with studios. He seems like he enjoys being a Zoolander type more often than not (as evidenced by his Joaquin Phoenix turn at the Oscars this year) but then why does he come back to the rom-com role time and time again. Is this what audiences want to see? For now, I'll place him in the Brad Pitt category of being a character actor stuck in a leading man's body. This would explain the relative unattractness of all of his characters (both physically and mentally). I mean: what's not to love?