(Canada/Germany, 96 min.)
Dir. Florian Cossen, Writ. Elena von Saucken, Daniel
Schacter
Starring: Alex Ozerov, Bea Santos,
Krista Bridges, Sebastian Schipper
 |
| Alex Ozerov stars in Coconut Hero. Search Engine Films |
What’s the recipe for a coconut hero? Rum? Whipped cream?
Donuts? Sugar?
Nope, nope, and nope, but there’s a little of the latter.
This German-Canadian co-pro finds the recipe for its sweet success with the simple formula of:
Coconut Hero = Old Stock + Harold and Maude – granny panties.
This eclectic little indie is a twee coming of age comedy with
a dark fascination with death. Amidst a few darling musical/dance numbers,
young Mike Tyson (Alex Ozerov, Blackbird) toys with the idea of what it’s like
to die. Yes, Mike unfortunately shares his name with a goofy celebrity. He
reminds the audience of this fact no sooner than one can say Office Space. Rather
than getting face tattoos or pushing his mommy down the stairs, though, Mike
Tyson doesn’t share much with the doofus boxer besides a name. This Mike Tyson
is more of a kindred spirit to young Harold Chasen (Bud Cort), the morbidly
fascinating rich kid who gave birth to twee hipster protagonists decades ago in
Harold and Maude.
Mike Tyson wants to die and Coconut Hero begins with The End
of It All as Mike attempts suicide. He does so after writing a lame obituary
that invites all his schoolmates to joke about him being gay long after he
blows his brains out. Ever a muck-up, though, Mike can’t even successfully put
bullet to brain and he soon has to face the consequences of his “Goodbye,
flower” farewell. If Coconut Hero screened at a drive-in, Maude would surely
ride up in her shiny old hearse.
Life in the fictional town of Faintville, Canada—modelled
loosely on director Florian Cossen’s experience living in the Middle of Nowhere,
Canada—doesn’t get easier for Mike Tyson as his mom (Krista Bridges) refuses to
acknowledge that his accident was a potential suicide. Mike mopes. Mike pouts.
Mike struggles with the selfish words of his peers and neighbours who wish he
had just gone and died.
The script by Elena von Saucken and Daniel Schacter,
however, then throws the audience an unexpected twist when Mike learns that he
can actually die. The film keeps trying to give him a reason to live when
thoughts of death can’t escape his head, and the sage advice arrives in an
enjoyable flyby cameo by Udo Kier (presumably on loan between scenes of TheForbidden Room) who cracks some jokes about Germany and sends Mike to dance
therapy. Cue Miranda (Bea Santo), the Maude to Mike Tyson’s Harold and the Patti
to his Stock. Miranda’s dance class stirs something in Mike step by step and
slowly, gradually, he finds that life isn’t all that bad.
Coconut Hero takes its team to learn the moves, as this expository
review indicates, and if one survives the atrociously precious opening act, one
finds that Mike’s story has a sunny disposition. The film is both awfully and
wonderfully derivative as it heralds every precocious hipster comedy from Harold
and Maude to Napoleon Dynamite to Ruby Sparks with an aficionado’s grasp of the
Fox Searchlight Sundance acquisition library—and the look of the film, which is
handsome for a modest Canuck co-pro, surely indicates that Cossen and co. have
done their research. The self-awareness of the film subsides once Mike Tyson
finds himself in Miranda’s care and maybe it’s because Miranda firmly rejects
the archetype of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl or because Santos brings the film
to life with a natural spark that Coconut Hero wonderfully and magically clicks
in spite of itself. Just when one expects to hate it, the film melts your
heart.
Take, for example, a pivotal ukulele scene in which Mike
Tyson and Miranda (she doesn’t have a last name) improvise a funeral
hymn for a deer they smoosh on the highway, which, incidentally, gives such a
small bump that one may assume that roadkill wasn’t part of Cossen’s immersion
in Canadiana. After digging a grave and resting in it for a minute, Miranda
whips out her uke and the two jam about deer like two kids from The Sound of
Music. The move inspires an eye roll, but as the two friends sing sweetly and
riff about roadkill, Coconut Hero radiates a down to earth warmth that’s
impossible to resist.
Most of the effort rests on the infectiously endearing
effort of Ozerov and Santos as Coconut Hero grows on the viewer like a welcome
tumour. Ozerov is a natural talent with his slumped and resigned performance as
the awkward outsider. Like Cort’s Harold, Ozerov’s Mike Tyson is a sickly
looking and removed boy who simply doesn’t know how to live. Mike’s gradual
awakening gives the film ample spirits as he draws strength from Santos’s
effortlessly down-to-earth spunk. As the characters open up to the experiences
that live outside of Faintville’s gloomy borders, Coconut Hero gives an
affectionate story about what it means to live. As Mike Tyson encounters death,
the film strips away his romantic idea of the afterlife, ending on a refreshing
natural note in a recipe with a few artificial flavours.
Coconut Hero opens in Toronto March 18 at the Carlton.
It opens in Ottawa at The
ByTowne on March 25.
