Ben Stiller (2001)
Zoolander has a secure tone – Ben Stiller, with his co-writers Drake Sather and John Hamburg, always keep in mind both the satirical intention and the silliness of the enterprise. The object of satire is various aspects of the international fashion industry – its exploitation of cheap labour in the developing world, the egos of celebrity male models, and so on: broad is the word to describe both the film’s target and its comic execution. The powers-that-be of the industry are presented in the opening scene in a traditionally villainous light. Dark, shadowy figures seated at a vast semicircular table, the vested interests of an Evil Empire plan to assassinate the new Malaysian prime minister, so as to put an end to his progressive policies (he recently outlawed child labour in his country). The vehicle for carrying out the plan is a veteran male model called Derek Zoolander, whom the fashion moguls brainwash – not that he has a brain to start with.
Calling Zoolander Derek is nearly enough in itself to make the film’s silliness impregnable; with Ben Stiller playing him, it’s Fort Knox. Zoolander depends crucially on Stiller’s being implausible as an action hero and incredible as a male model, even one on the wane. This means that, when Derek eventually thwarts the plotters, his heroism is still for laughs. Early on, after failing to win a fourth consecutive ‘Male Model of the Year’ award, Derek considers retirement; he reckons there must be more to life than being ‘ridiculously good-looking’ (the stress is always on the ‘good’) and talks about setting up a school for deprived kids. In the film’s epilogue, his humanitarian dream has become a reality – the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. The place educates children to be both beautiful human beings and, all being well, male models too.
Stiller’s casting himself in the lead gives the film itself a vanity project quality and enriches the texture of self-regarding celebrity that’s an essential element of it. (There are loads of famous people in cameos, playing themselves.) His casting is successful too because Stiller is such a resourceful, game-for-anything actor. His mobility – physical, facial, vocal – is likeable; and you root for him because he seems naturally an underdog. Stiller is good-looking but silly-looking too. You root no less for Owen Wilson as Derek Zoolander’s determinedly cool (but ‘so hot right now’) arch-rival Hansel. Because Wilson is so engaging it’s emotionally right when Hansel becomes Derek’s brother-in-arms against the hysterically malign designer Jacobim Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell with controlled over-the-top brio. Christine Taylor (Stiller’s wife) is the Time journalist who writes a destructive profile of Zoolander before they fall in love. Taylor doesn’t have a strong screen presence but her saneness complements the extravagant male stars nicely. Stiller’s (coalminer) father in the film is played, very funnily, by Jon Voight; his real father Jerry does a fine turn as Zoolander’s unhealthy manager (with ‘a prostate the size of a honeydew’). Alexander Skarsgård is one of Zoolander’s three best friends, who manage to blow themselves up in a ‘freak gasoline-fight accident’ early on in the story.
It was surely a miscalculation to use a real country in the plot – the film was banned in Malaysia and Singapore – but the real-life inspiration for Mugatu’s ‘Derelicte’ collection (a John Galliano line) gives the catwalk sequences a bit of acid to leaven the humour. Mugatu is revealed to have been one of the original line-up of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He was dropped before they made it big. ‘Relax’ is a key part of the brainwashing of Derek and just one of many excellent songs on the soundtrack.
6 October 2011
