Review: Observe and Report

Seth Rogen’s appeal baffles me, at least as a leading man in romantic comedies, albeit raunchy ones. There’s nothing warm about the guy and no matter how sincere he tries to be an undercurrent of sullen hostility never leaves his voice. Rogen may look like a cute little teddy bear, but there’s nothing cuddly about him. There’s talent there to be sure, and he’s watchable enough, but connecting and rooting for his characters never comes easy, if at all.

No matter how crude or wild things got, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase, John Candy, John Belushi, and Bill Murray have all managed to capture our sympathy in a single scene. Rogen lacks that gift, which makes him the perfect choice to play a deluded, territorial mall cop in “Observe and Report.”

Ronnie (Rogen) wants to be a hero and leader of men, and he’ll be damned if he’ll let anything get in the way, including his own limitations and station in life. Overweight, not terribly bright and suffering from psychological problems serious enough to require medication, Ronnie’s positioned himself as the Supercop of the Forest Ridge Mall, and with a team of three other mall cops made up of overweight twins and the sycophant Dennis (Michael Pena – finally breaking out of the sensitive-Hispanic typecasting ghetto), skateboarders, suspicious Middle Easterners and anyone foolish enough to make Ronnie’s day had best beware this Hall Monitor from Hell.

Ronnie’s smitten with cosmetic counter-girl Brandi (the always brilliant and ridiculously fetching Anna Faris), but for obvious reasons she’s not interested in him and manages to keep him at arms-length until she’s accosted by a flasher who works the mall parking lot. The police, in the form of Detective Harrison (The Mighty Ray Liotta) are called in, allowing Ronnie to engage in a turf war that delights him and position himself as Brandi’s protector.

Emboldened by “his case” and how working it feeds the delusion, Ronnie applies to be a police officer, romances (if you want to call it that) Brandi and assumes that because life is going so well that it’s now okay to go off his meds. Obviously Ronnie can’t keep reality from intruding forever, but the harder it tries the more extreme his reactions, which all leads to a smart and unexpected finale.

“Observe and Report” is a fairly cold character study of an interesting but extremely unlikable man. The tone awkwardly shifts between Adam Sandler’s bawdier films and something much darker. At times the comedy is surprisingly good-natured but on a dime turns over-the-top hostile and very, very violent. What saves it, though, is something of a lost art in Hollywood these days, and that’s pacing. If there’s been a more expertly paced film released in the last year, I haven’t seen it. This thing hums — never too slow, never too fast. The lack of sympathetic characters keeps you from caring what happens next, but the story moves so damn well you keep watching.

Rogen is absolutely outstanding as Ronnie. Because his character is a habitual and self-destructive truth-teller (as Ronnie sees the truth), the script’s littered with monologues that in lesser hands would’ve come off as self-conscious, actor show pieces, but Rogen pulls them off effortlessly, never breaking character. The supporting cast is equally good, especially Faris as a disgusting princess and Ray Liotta repressing rage and then not repressing rage as only Ray Liotta can.

There’s much to admire about “Observe and Report,” but little to like. Loaded with relentless full-frontal male nudity, foul language and blaring music clips, you get the sense that writer/director Jody Hill is trying too hard. The film’s biggest failure, though, is that for all the build up, you never get that knot of dread in your stomach wondering what Ronnie might do next. But that’s what happens when you can’t decide on the kind of film you’re making. There’s a potentially brilliant black comedy in “Observe and Report,” and an enjoyable silly one, unfortunately the mash-up of the two dilutes the impact making for an interesting but remote 86-minutes.