Dir. Adam McKay, 2004, US, 94 mins
Cast:
Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Fred Willard
Review by Gus Alvarez
The latest ex-alumni of US TV's Saturday Night Live to cross over into mainstream comic cinema, Will Ferrell follows last year's Elf and Old School with this occasionally hilarious look at 1970's sexual politics in a San Diego newsroom.
Ferrell plays the superbly monikered Ron Burgundy, the voice and face of San Diego's top rated news channel. With his little gang of idiot co-hosts - a sportscaster, a weatherman and a location reporter - Ron enjoys the status of being the star of the station, and the fruits of local celebrity. Burgundy and his buddies spend their time drinking, smoking and chasing women against an affectionately cheesy period backdrop of polyester and Crimplene, roll necks and moustaches, drunken pool parties and macho self-congratulation. All is well in this chauvinist utopia, until Veronica Corningstone sashays into the newsroom: blonde, beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, and with her sights set on becoming the channel's first anchor woman - a prospect which terrifies Burgundy and his cronies.
Inspired by a documentary about the first women to invade the all-male bastion of the news desk in the 1970s, Ferrell and the cast have great fun in portraying this thankfully anachronistic atmosphere of blatant chauvinism. Burgundy and his chums are hopelessly dumb and child-like, but blissfully unaware of just how stupid they appear to a modern world that waits just around the corner. This world is represented by Veronica, and a great deal of the film's funniest moments come from the verbal jousting between her and Ron, who at first tries to 'woo' her, before trying to 'shoo' her: "Get back to Whore Island!" he commands, live on air, with his customary grace and intelligence.
Ferrell and director Adam McKay (co-writer, and also a veteran of SNL) weave a satisfyingly silly streak through Burgundy's world, which in part redeems the character: he plays a mean jazz flute, and has a touching relationship with his pet dog, whom he shares a bed with each night. The writing team also do a nice line in ridiculous names: along with the eponymous Burgundy, we have Brick Tamland, Brian Fantana, and Champ Kind making up Ron's gang of four. There's a very funny running joke about their rivalry with another local news team, an almost identical bunch of over grown idiots led by Vince Vaughn. This rivalry leads to a cameo-heavy 'rumble' (Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins, Ben Stiller all feature), in which the warring weathermen, newscasters and sports commentators go at it with knives, chains and pool cues.
Ferrell carries the film with an easy charm and a deliciously droll comic sensibility; part Bill Murray, part Chevy Chase, with extra dollops of an improv-inspired silliness mixed in for good measure. Ably supported by a skillful comic entourage (Applegate, Rudd and the incomparable Fred Willard all deserve special mention), Anchorman is a very funny and affectionate spoof in which the performers are clearly enjoying themselves as much as the audience. |
