“Motherf**ker”: My FT Review
Here’s my Financial Times review of “The Motherf**ker with the Hat,” starring Chris Rock, now on Broadway. The production received raves from some outlets (New York Times, Wall Street Journal). Overall, the reviews are mixed. Full text of my review also after the jump.
Like many great stand-up comedians, Chris Rock gives unzipped voice to loserdom. Patsies and chumps people his routines, their salty street-talk a part of an attempt to assert power.
When Rock has to play someone else’s character, however, as in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s profane The Motherf**ker with the Hat, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, he can no longer dictate the rhythm of a performance. He must find the pulse in someone else’s words.
Given that his acting tends to exhibit a high-octane heartlessness, and conveys scant inner life, Rock acquits himself rather well in this initially hilarious, eventually melodramatic New York story of drugs, desperation and friendship.
As Ralph D, the Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor to recovering addict Jackie, portrayed by Bobby Cannavale, Rock connives to enjoy himself even as he reassures Jackie that everything will be all right if he abides by AA’s 12 steps.
Rock struggles to convey the sponsor’s sincerity. Ralph extols to Jackie the benefits of natural foods and yoga – “I may be an asshole, bro, but I’m limber!†– yet it is only a matter of time before the AA honesty drops away.
Jackie, given gravelly sex appeal by Cannavale, cannot grasp the need for concealment. Having served 26 months in prison for drug peddling, he threatens his girlfriend, Veronica, after he returns to their dingy apartment and discovers evidence of her infidelity. Cannavale sniffs the bedclothes for signs of another man, and bares his teeth when he sees a guy’s hat in their home.
After exacting his revenge by shooting a neighbour’s hat, Jackie must dispose of the gun and implores help from his cousin Julio. From this point any narrative momentum – what will happen if Jackie’s petty crime is discovered and will his parole be jeopardised? – dribbles away.
But the comic sparks continue, in large part because Yul Vázquez, as the streetwise, slightly queeny Julio, manages that rare thing: giving humanity to a stereotype.
Long after our patience with Jackie, Ralph and Veronica – played by the fire-spewing Elizabeth Rodriguez – has abated, we long to know more about the cousin. In a comedy of swearword-loving low-lifes, he imparts a touch of class.
