(Canada, 94 min.)
Dir. Mike Clattenburg, Writ. Mike Clattenburg, Mike O’Neill
Starring: Will Sasso, Charlie Murphy, Gabriel Hogan,
Gabrielle Miller, Victor Garber.
An embarrassingly unfunny film, Moving Day lifts comedy in its broadest form and drops the package
on its big toe. Director/co-writer Mike Clattenburg (The Trailer Park Boys) usually provides a good chuckle with coarse
humour aimed for a general audience, but this workplace comedy is as dry and
flat as the cardboard boxes the movers stack and ship. Moving Day is the kind of Canadian movie that gives tax credits for
the film industry a bad rep.
Why, where, or how Clyde aims to get there seems irrelevant,
so Moving Day has its main man all
boxed up and ready to go without any game plan. It’s all pointless, really, as
the roster of one-note characters goes from one situational gag to another,
playing upon workplace scenarios for sitcommy laughs. The film includes a bunch
of aimless subplots, such Redmond’s fluffy dog that likes to eat rubber bands,
or other odd digressions like Clyde’s dreamy interludes. The whole script seems
like an excuse to set up product placements for PopchipsTM and
Alexander Keith’sTM or the odd crane shot just to make the film seem
“cinematic.”
It’s all done fairly well, or at least competently, from a
perspective of production value, so Moving
Day simply resembles a missed opportunity to create a decent comedy for
mainstream Canadian audiences. It looks just as commercially viable as a Hollywood
film does, but it’s not the least bit funny, so there’s no incentive to spend a
buck on this pic. There’s ample talent involved in Moving Day, from American
stars Sasso and Murphy to Canuck talents Garber and Miller (the latter of whom
randomly scored a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Canadian Screen
Awards, despite how she has a thankless role), so this film could have been a
decent comedy if the cast and crew were fashioned with a decent script. Moving Day, a throwback to the days of tax
shelter crap, is a waste of talent. But it’s mostly just a waste of time.
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Moving Day is now available on home video.