Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

The rock biopic. What is supposedly a truthful account of an important and colourful life but in fact turns out to be as fanciful as a government press release. Of course the major problem is that for the most part their subjects merely made music, music that didn't really change the world much. Then of course they got hooked on drugs, destroyed a few marriages and became so self-obsessed and whiny that their own bandmates had trouble hanging around them. It's not really much of a film is it? So the embellishments start. A little extra relationship here, a little changed the political shape of the world here. All the while surrounded by the great and good of rock 'n' roll's hall of fame. Add some childhood trauma and/or a physical deformity that they have to overcome and Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom! you've got the "Greatest Story(that's about a musician and stuff) Ever Told (c)".

Let's be honest if it wasn't for this cavalier attitude to the truth rock biopics would be rubbish. Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan realise this and love them for it. Thus we have their version of the rock biopic Walk Hard. It's the story of fake rock legend Dewey Cox and as you can expect from this sort of exercise he's went through every cliche in the rock book, from the twelve-year-old girlfriend to musical experiments that involve African percussionists and a goat. The film isn't a spoof of actual bands like This Is Spinal Tap though, it is squarely apeing the rock biopic and as such the entire thing is constructed to make you aware that this is the movie version of Cox's life and not actual footage, like in the aforementioned Tap's fake documentary aesthetic.

This means there are many wink, wink moments, such as the stilted dialogue and references to exactly what decade the scene is taking place in and how important things are happening around them. There are also the attempts to ramp up the drama, such as Cox overcoming the inability to smell to make his music or the wonderful rehab sequence.

What you'll notice about Walk Hard is the difference in tone from the other recent Apatow comedies, such as Knocked Up, Superbad and 40 Year Old Virgin. Gone are the real-life situations and outrageous improvised dialogue, and in their place comes a humour that is both more surreal yet more subtle at the same time. The actual situations of the film strive for the ridiculous, yet most of the funniest jokes are plays on words, or suggestive visual gags, such as the ice cream scene. The thing is that the film is never quite laugh-out loud funny as a result. What you get instead is a film that is consistently humourous but at times the tone can be slightly muddled. The lack of improvisation means that the dialogue is never quite as riotous as those previous films. Instead of in-your-face arse and tit jokes there are lines that allude to arses and tits. When this is then juxtaposed with a brother who is sawed in half and Dewey spending a fortnight on a trampoline thanks to drugs it's clear that sometime during the writing process Apatow and Kasdan became a little unclear just what exactly the tone of the film was supposed to be.

Confused tone and a lack of belly-laughs aside, Walk Hard is still a damn enjoyable comedy with many great moments, Dewey meeting the Beatles is one of the best scenes of the past year, and the songs are absolutely fantastic. The fact that this didn't get an Oscar nomination for Best Song shows you the Academy's aversion to comedies. The cast are great too, John C. Reilly is genuinely funny for a "serious" actor doing a comic role and it's great to see Jenna Fischer getting something to do besides the straight woman, as great at that as she is. Add in a who's who of Apatow sponsored actors as the supporting cast to really seal the deal. Much like a great aging rocker like a Dylan or a Wilson Walk Hard drops a few Empire Burlesque style clangers but the good stuff overshadows it and ultimately you'll be able to forgive those faults because the good stuff really is that, good.