It is a frightening thought, but films like these make one wonder whether Robert Downey Jr. had peaked with Endgame. And surely there must be some executive who realises that the children’s movie industry cannot sustain itself on remakes forever?
In the fourth visual reboot of the beloved character created by Hugh Lofting in his letters from the First World War, Robert Downey Jr. stars as the titular Dolittle alongside a veritable who’s who of A-list voice actors.
Before we embark on the breakdown of the film itself, it must be said that the movie went through considerable moulding before it saw the light of day. Following poor audience reactions to the initial test screenings of the movie, it underwent re-shoots under a different director (Jonathan Liebesman taking over from Stephen Gaghan), to make it funnier. Well, one can only say, if this was the one they fixed…
The screenplay, written by Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand, feels so patchy that it seems like all three of them went home, worked on their individual parts, and simply patched them all together at the end, throwing tonal consistency to the wind.
To be fair, that does not seem like something that children (their target audience) would be too bothered by, but the film does not seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to be an all out, loud fantasy adaptation or a deep retelling of a broken man’s quest to heal himself by healing others.
Dolittle is the latest in the slew of eccentric genius characters that Robert Downey Jr usually excels at portraying. However, his performance is bogged down by his inexplicable decision to make his character Welsh. He stumbles over the uneven accent, which frequently meanders into Irish, Jamaican and even Indian before making its way back to the mumbled Welsh that cries out for subtitled explanation.
The other human characters include Tommy Stubbins, Dolittle’s self-appointed apprentice, played by Harry Collett who fills up most of his screen time by looking scared or confused or awed. Antonio Banderas plays Rassouli, the pirate king as cartoonishly as they required him to, while Michael Sheen portrays a rather one note villain. The voice cast is largely recognisable, but none except the ever delightful Jason Mantzoukas as the quippy dragonfly make much of an impression. And that is a shame, considering that the voice cast includes names like Octavia Spencer, Marion Cotillard and Kumail Nanjiani. What distracts from their performance is a lot of CGI inconsistency, leading to the human actors constantly missing eye-lines and taking away from the credibility of the film. The score by Danny Elfman is standard children’s fantasy fare, unfortunately failing to elevate the tone of the film.
It is, however, rather unkind not to end on a positive note, so I must say this film would work great as background distractions at a child’s play day. Lots of bright colours and talking animals and fart jokes. Make of that what you will.
Film: Dolittle
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Emma Thompson, Tom Holland, Michael Sheen, Antonio Banderas
Rating: 2/5
