“TOP FIVE” My rating: B
101 minutes | MPAA rating:R
But the star and the scribe do have something in common: Both are recovering alcoholics, and as the long day progresses they will come to rely on each other to steer clear of the bottle.
For the first 15 minutes or so I wasn’t sure “Top Five” was going to work. The patter between Rock and Dawson feels too scripted, too clever to ring true. But soon the film finds its voice and its pace.
They drag from one dreary radio interview to the next as Andre plugs a movie nobody wants to see. On the street people stop him to ask when he’s going to put the bear costume on again (any resemblance to Woody Allen’s similarly themed “Stardust Memories” is not coincidental).
And at his bachelor party, packed with who include Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg and a bevy of gyrating topless dancers, Andre can’t even indulge in the freely flowing champagne. (There’s a borderline brilliant scene of Andre and Chelsea on a wish-list cruise through a liquor store, handling the bottles as if they were precious works of art. At one point the reluctantly sober Chelsea tries to smell her favorite brand through the unopened cap — the moment is almost heartbreaking in its yearning.)
Throughout, “Top Five” scores points for social commentary. In some ways it’s like a dramatized version of a great Chris Rock concert.
But equally impressive is the chemistry that develops between Rock and Dawson. It’s not an easy progression, but it has both brains and heart. And Dawson provides a bit of dramatic depth that helps anchor Rock’s somewhat more cliched performance.
Without tying everything up in a neat little bow, “Top Five” suggests that perhaps Andre has turned a corner.
The film looks great — the NYC photography is by Manuel Alberto Claro, a veteran of Lars Von Trier’s projects — and the supporting cast is impossibly deep: Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Romany Malco, J.B. Smoove, just for starters.
Some of the playing is broad — Morgan, for instance, offers his stock bombast — but a few players are terrific. Particularly fine is Smoove as Andre’s bodyguard, a blend of goofy humor and genuine concern. You wouldn’t mind seeing a movie about just that character
on.
| Robert W. Butler
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