Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Fool's Paradise Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 18, 2023

Fool's Paradise has a killer cast and a somewhat fun if derivative premise, but it's one of those films that consistently tries way too hard to deliver some arguably less than hilarious punchlines. Charlie Day reinvents himself as something of an auteur with this feature, writing, directing and also starring as a Charlie Chaplin-esque naïf who is a dead ringer for a movie star, a star who is soon in fact dead. Day's character has supposedly hilariously been dubbed Latte Pronto, courtesy of some misheard demands from a nearby executive to an intern, but one of the central conceits of the film is that Latte is mute, having evidently suffered some sort of trauma that keeps him in a near catatonic state. The result is something like Being There meets A Star Is Born, as Latte becomes an overnight sensation and unsurprisingly then experiences the highs and lows of show business superstardom.

Along the way, Latte is shepherded (more or less, anyway) by a hapless publicist named Lenny (Ken Jeong), who is desperate to have a successful client (or, actually, any client). There's some expected snarky deconstruction of celebrity life as Latte ends up married to a co-star named Christiana Dior (Kate Beckinsdale), at least for a little while (hey, Hollywood marriages tend not to last), and also engenders an Entourage (so to speak), that includes a world weary agent (Edie Falco).

The cast list is actually amazing, and includes Adrien Brody as a hard drinking actor, the late, great Ray Liotta as a studio executive who first notices how Latte is a doppelganger for a recalcitrant star (also played by Day, of course), and a surprisingly spry John Malkovich as a kind of Koch Brother-esque puppet master. But the film never quite matches one of its best jokes which is delivered very early when Latte is introduced (still nameless) as an idiosyncratic case who's been housed at a local mental institution. The examining doctor is offering suitable therapies to his assistant, and then says something like, "But, the state won't be paying for any of that, so we're dumping his ass downtown". If the rest of the film had been able to sustain that level of black humor, it would have been quite remarkable. As it stands, it has some intermittent wackiness to recommend it, but with this cast, it certainly should have been a lot funnier.

Fool's Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fool's Paradise is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. There's not a ton of technical data that I was able to find online, but this is a very appealing looking digital capture that I assume had a 2K DI. Day as director can tend to favor the kind of symmetry in his framings that often accompany Wes Anderson films, and indeed there's almost an Andersonian whimsicality to some of the palette choices and overall production design. A lot of the brightly lit outdoor material pops in arrays of almost candy colored pastels and vivid primaries in both costume design and sets. Detail levels are generally excellent throughout, and I noticed no major compression issues.

Fool's Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fool's Paradise features a workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that can spring to life during some (actually not all that omnipresent) source cues, and especially in some of the chaotic studio material (a semi-funny scene offering Latte as Mosquito Boy and getting pummeled with cannonballs is a good example). Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Fool's Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:29)

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Fool's Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can kind of feel Charlie Day aiming for the fences with this feature on any number of levels, but to continue the baseball analogy, he probably only scores a double at best. There is a reasonably inventive premise here (even if it will recall any number of other films), and a truly remarkable cast, but the results are disappointingly listless a lot of the time. Technical merits are solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.