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A thin plot, tired acting and dull lines render Just Visiting avoidable
GUESS it all started with H.G. Wells’ Time Machine, this thing about travelling back and forth in time and the idea was well exploited by Robert Zemeckis in Back to the Future. The two sequels may have lost their freshness but they were still quite watchable and sort of gave Michael J. Fox’s career a head start in the late 1980s. But Just Visiting, based on a surprise French hit, The Visitors, is quite pathetic though the only thing in common with the films mentioned earlier is that it travels back and forth in time. Blame it on the usual wicked old witch who as a result of a mistaken spell sends mediaeval knight Thibault (Jean Reno) and his bumbling vassal Andre (Christian Clavier) from 12th century France to present-day Chicago. Now if the scriptwriters, Jan-Marie Clavier, Jean-Marie Poire and John Hughes had a little imagination they could have used this change to satirise the urban American mores and class attitudes but strangely they give it a bypass. The plot is cardboard thin and the lines range from the trite to the stupid with the vassal Andre making a complete ass of himself to the point of becoming repulsive. While waiting for the arrival of another weird wizard (Malcolm McDowell) who can transport them back home in space and time, this duo resort to all kinds of supposedly funny incidents like grappling with automobiles, being all at sea in the toilets and being quite oblivious to modern niceties. But how much can you flog that gag. Nevertheless, director Jean-Marie Gaubert goes at these gimmicks hammer and tongs till one is quite sick o the action. Ageing French actor Jean Gabin goes through the motions looking quite disinterested and tired but Clavier is as enthusiastic as in his tom-foolery with his pals. It is sad to see Malcolm McDowell (remember him as a schoolboy in If and later in good films like O Lucky Man) is such a pathetic part. The first 10 minutes, nay five, give one a hint of the shape of things to come. So avoid those early minutes and you’re safe from absolute boredom. — E.E.M |
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