Walk Hard

Walk Hard is a slight but affectionate spoof of musical biopics, writes Michael Dwyer.

Directed by Jake Kasdan. Starring John C Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Kristen Wiig, Raymond J Barry 16 cert, gen release, 96 min  ***

It's not very often that a movie riddled with cliches can be described as entertaining, but their function in Walk Hard is to be upturned mercilessly.

The movie lampoons the music biopic genre with gleeful relish, beginning with the poster slogan: "Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard."

Walk Hard opens with one of the stock scenes of the genre, as an ageing singer is about to go on stage and an excuse is required to cue the extended flashback that follows.

Dewey Cox (John C Reilly) is backstage, staring moodily at a wall when his drummer (Tim Meadows) tells the theatre manager: "You have to give him a moment, son. Mr Cox has to think about his entire life before he plays."

Cut to rural Alabama in 1940, when Dewey is a boy engaged in "a little machete fighting" with his kid brother, whom he accidentally slices in half. Of course, Dewey will be haunted by this for the rest of his life, and his resentful father (Raymond J Barry) will never let him forget it.

After that Ray reference, Walk Hard leaps forward to when Dewey is 14 and quite implausibly played by Reilly, who is 42. Even more unlikely is the sensation Dewey causes at a talent contest when he performs the utterly innocuous Take My Hand in an allegedly seminal point in music and society.

The trio of Hasidic Jews who run Planet Records sign him up as soon as he sings Walk Hard, triggering a mega-career that propels Dewey Zelig-style through protest songs (a sharp Bob Dylan send-up), flower power, a self-indulgent Brian Wilson phase (demanding 50,000 didgeridoos for an album track) and on through disco, bland TV variety shows, and rap.

Dewey's drummer introduces him to a succession of drugs, as Dewey struggles with guilt for cheating on his extraordinarily fertile wife (Jenna Fischer) and, in a nod to Walk the Line, falling for his backup singer (Kristen Wiig) with whom he duets on a number strewn with double entendres.

As scripted by director Jake Kasdan and producer Judd Apatow, Walk Hard is a witty, ultimately affectionate spoof that allots too much time to the inevitably formulaic narrative on which the jokes are hung.

The movie is most effective in the songs that pepper the soundtrack, a succession of spot-on pastiches performed with versatility and deadpan aplomb by Reilly.

Cameos abound, with Jack White amusingly mannered as Elvis Presley, Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly, and the bickering Beatles played by Paul Rudd (John), Jack Black (Paul), Justin Long (George) and Jason Schwartzman (Ringo).