After making its debut at the recent SXSW festival in Texas, Get Hard,the new film from Will Ferrell, has come under fire from some critics. While it positions itself as a parody of gender, race and societal roles, it ultimately falls short on laughs.
Ferrell stars as James King, an entitled tycoon who openly flaunts his considerable wealth but is blinkered to the world around him. After being charged with insider trading, King receives a ten-year jail sentence from a judge who seeks to make an example of him. Staring down considerable time at the notorious San Quentin Prison, he enlists the help of Darnell (Kevin Hart), who washes his luxury cars, to prepare him for his prison stretch. Darnell is a young black man; King, a keen statistician, chooses him on the basis that a third of black men in America will be incarcerated in their lifetime, and assuming Darnell has done time already. Darnell is happy to run with the idea, despite being a law-abiding citizen, seeing the transaction as a way to earn some easy money to support his family.
It soon becomes apparent that King’s main concern about going to prison is avoiding sexual assault. The dubious politics continue when, after King fails to toughen up by picking fights with a bunch of strangers in the park, Darnell encourages the tycoon to offer sexual favours in return for protection. Cue an awkward scene in a gay bar and later a brunch café.
As horrendous as this does sound, I’ll admit that I laughed. Ferrell is, as ever, a great comic performer and the strongest parts of the film are where he is left to improvise. There’s a particularly great scene where King begins trash-talking Darnell from within his makeshift cell – harking back to some of Ferrell’s more revered Ron Burgundy lines. At times, though, it does feel like you are watching a bad case study from a media communications class, as the issues of homosexuality and race are dealt with clumsily at best. The parody isn’t as nuanced as it needs to be and falls flat, as King attempts to infiltrate a white supremacist fraternity and later bonds with a black gang whom he enthrals with advice on how to make a fortune on the stock market.
The final quarter of the film staggers along as the real culprits of the insider trading crime are tracked down, action ensues on a boat and a series of bad puns are delivered. Get Hard is certainly engaging at times, and the original premise had the potential to make for a great film, but much of the humour does feel a little lazy and dated.
2.5/5 stars
Get Hard opens in cinemas on Thursday March 26.
