Movie Review: The Roaring Twenties (1939)

A crime thriller set during the Prohibition era, The Roaring Twenties is a wild ride through a decade of excess, featuring the rise and fall of an ambitious racketeer. 

During the first World War, three American soldiers meet under fire on the battlefields of France. Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) is an enthusiastic car mechanic, George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) is an acerbic saloon owner, and Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) is an aspiring lawyer. 

Back in the United States after the war, Prohibition is introduced in 1920, creating a new and massive underground alcohol industry. In New York City Eddie meets nightclub manager Panama Smith (Gladys George) and gets into the alcohol business, with Lloyd as his reluctant lawyer. After teaming up with George, Eddie rises to become a big-time criminal manufacturing and distributing alcohol.

On his way to the top Eddie meets and falls in love with lounge singer Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane), but she is unsure about romancing a gangster and is more interested in Lloyd. Increasing levels of violence cause rifts between Eddie, Lloyd, and George, before the Great Depression upends the entire economy.

Based on the memoirs of journalist Mark Hellinger as recounted in his 1938 book The World Moves On, The Roaring Twenties captures the energy of its title. The script by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, and Robert Rossen is packed with incident, and Raoul Walsh directs with suitable vigour: the scenes are short, the years tumble by, the characters evolve, and no time is wasted as a country rides a roller coaster of nightclubs, parties, money, and violence fuelled by an unpopular law imposed on an unwilling public.

Propelled by James Cagney's irrepressible intensity, Eddie Bartlett chases the American Dream whereby a lowly mechanic can become a somebody, his rise made possible by a massive underground industry created overnight. Eddie starts with delivery, progresses to manufacturing (at first in his bathtub), then moves onto distribution, offering a range of products including luxury varieties. Along the way he forges uneasy alliances (including with George), elbows competitors out of the way, and makes plenty of enemies.

But Eddie always carries a torch for Jean, the teenager who wrote to him when he was in the trenches of France. He waits for her to grow up then sponsors her career. But while she is always grateful, she also represents Eddie's great blind spot. Over the years he fails to understand she will never respect a gangster, and remains oblivious to her blooming romance with Lloyd. Overall, Eddie is much less successful at affairs of the heart than at business: he also fails to recognize or acknowledge Panama's decade-long crush on him.

Eddie's love for Jean makes him sympathetic, as do the two men more brutal than he is: George is a cold-blooded killer when needed, as proven in an early scene during the war when he does not hesitate to snipe a teenager. And rival booze industry mobster Nick Brown (Paul Kelly) is also quick to deploy deadly tactics of intimidation.

The final act features Eddie's dramatic descent back to his roots, his fate now resting in the competing palms of George and Lloyd. Eddie can still grab the initiative for the sake of the great love of his life, and hurtles to the only place where retribution and redemption can meet.



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Movie Review: Other Men's Women (1931)

A depression-era love triangle drama, Other Men's Women offers an intriguing supporting cast and good cinematography, but is otherwise dull and emotionally overcooked. 

Railwaymen Bill (Grant Withers) and Jack (Regis Toomey) have been best buddies for a long time. Bill likes to party and hangs out with waitress Marie (Joan Blondell), but is not ready settle down. Jack is married to Lily (Mary Astor), and brings Bill home to dry out after a night of hard drinking. Soon Bill and Lily fall in love, severely straining the friendship between the two men and leading to tragedy and sacrifice on the rail tracks.

Most notable for featuring James Cagney (as another rail buddy) and Joan Blondell in early roles, Other Men's Women also enjoys adventurous on-location cinematography by Barney McGill. Many scenes feature impressively mammoth freight trains and chugging engines, and director William A. Wellman makes excellent use of nighttime, heavy rain and spot lighting to create stark silhouettes, dark moods and a glistening aesthetic.

Unfortunately, the plot itself is bland and overclocked, with two charisma-challenged leading men in Grant Withers and Regis Toomey never registering much personality. Mary Astor's role as the subject of their affection is limited and she disappears for long stretches. The downward spiral of events triggered by illicit love accelerates from the silent treatment to a physical altercation then a life-changing injury and finally a catastrophic train event. Peter Berneis' script just barely avoids cramming locusts and the plague into the 71 minutes of running time.

Cagney makes the most of his few minutes of screen time, most memorably with an airy jig onto the dance floor, and Blondell fires off sassy retorts to railway men on the prowl. As it turns out, Other Men's Women is most interesting for the other man and other woman supporting the main players.



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Movie Review: Blood On The Sun (1945)

An anti-Japan propaganda spy adventure, Blood On The Sun never rises above rudimentary ambitions.

It's the 1930s in Tokyo, and Nick Condon (James Cagney) is the rambunctious managing editor of the English-language Tokyo Chronicle newspaper, owned by Arthur Bickett (Porter Hall). Nick antagonizes the Imperialist regime by publishing rumours of Japan's intentions to attack the United States. Reporter Ollie Miller (Wallace Ford) gets involved in a plot to smuggle incriminating documents out of Japan and is killed for his troubles, but the secret papers go missing.

Premier Giichi Tanaka (John Emery) leans on Nick to retrieve the memorandum, and deploys spy Iris Hilliard (Sylvia Sidney) to cozy up to Nick. She is half-Chinese and her real loyalties reside with China. As romance blossoms between Nick and Iris, the Japanese authorities grow more desperate to retrieve the missing documents, and lives are placed in danger.

A crude attempt to whip-up anti-Japanese sentiment towards the end of World War Two, Blood On The Sun has a clumsy plot and bumbling execution. With white actors in all the Asian roles, a dreary MacGuffin in the form of barely-defined "papers", and the evil Japanese officials always giving Nick plenty of leeway and every opportunity to get away with whatever he is hatching, director Frank Lloyd fails to generate meaningful drama or tension.

Star James Cagney makes matters worse. Although never less than energetic and committed, his bull-in-a-Tokyo-shop persona, standing up to high-level Japanese officials with empty threats and squaring off in Judo confrontations with local goons, is almost comically misplaced.

The better moments of the script by Garrett Fort and Lester Cole expose the misinformation and fact-twisting expertise of militaristic regimes, and the film at least makes an attempt to delve into pre-war pan-Asian complexities through the characters of Iris and journalist Joseph Cassell (Rhys Williams), a recent arrivee from Shanghai.

The final third of Blood On The Sun unapologetically attempts to pilfer a Casablanca vibe, but just lurches towards the ending of a dreadful star slip.

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Movie Review: Torrid Zone (1940)

An enjoyable if lightweight adventure in an exotic land with romance, drama, humour and droll characters, Torrid Zone delivers ripe fruit.

Steve Case (Pat O'Brien) is the highly strung manager of an international fruit export company based in a literal banana republic. Case controls chief of police Juan Rodriguez (Frank Puglia), and orders him to deport newly arrived lounge singer Lee Donley (Ann Sheridan) because she is too hot for the locals. Case and Rodriguez also have problems with revolutionary leader Rosario (George Tobias), who is at least temporarily behind bars, while Plantation 7 is under-performing ever since Case's best man Nick Butler (James Cagney) quit after having an affair with Case's wife. The new man Anderson (Jerome Cowan) and his wife Gloria (Helen Vinson) are overwhelmed and unable to cope with Rosario's hit and run raids.

Case cajoles Butler back to work with the promise of a big bonus, Lee avoids deportation by easily duping Rodriguez and sidling up to Butler, and Rosario escapes the execution squad and gets back to the mountains to lead his men. Butler tries to whip Plantation 7 back into productivity while figuring out a way to find Rosario's mountain hideout and subdue the revolution. But the real battle is on the plantation, where Lee and Gloria are hissing at each other, in a claws-out battle to claim the queen banana crown.

That Torrid Zone does not bother to name the country where all events are taking place is a good clue to the film's attitude. The opening globe hints at a location somewhere near the equator, and that's all that needs to be revealed. This is a jungle romp played very much tongue in cheek, and although broad comedy is not the intent, the film aims for and mostly achieves an amiable vibe where the actors are having fun trading barbs, the outcome is predetermined, happy and not very important.

Lee (to Case): Mister, the stork that brought you must have been a vulture.

Director William Keighley, never accused of trying to infuse quality where none is needed, hustles the action along to can the movie in 88 minutes. He also forgets to provide any guidance to the likes of Pat O'Brien, who shouts his way through the film with the deftness of a gorilla, and Andy Devine (as a Case loyalist and Cagney's sidekick at Plantation 7), who deploys his high pitched squeaky voice to distraction. Cagney just plays himself and easily gets away with it, while Ann Sheridan emerges as the star of the film.

Lee (cutting off Butler's shirt so she can dress his wound): Oh, did I hurt you?
Butler (sarcastically): Oh, no. How could you hurt me by sticking a scissors in my arm?

While the character of Lee Donley has no business being in this unkempt environment or anywhere near men like Nick Butler, Steve Case or Rosario, the script plonks her there to stir the pot, and stir she does. Sheridan glides through the movie with the silkiness of Bacall on her most dangerous days, and gets all the best lines. Her verbal duel with Gloria Anderson is filled with gems, as two cats go at it in the jungle heat.

Lee (picking up a cigarette dropped by Gloria): I believe this is how the Chicago fire got started.
Gloria: The Chicago fire was started by a cow.
Lee: History repeats itself.

The rest of the film stumbles along, large quantities of fruit moving on impressive trains, punctuated by Rosario cheating death on several occasions to continue leading his people's revolution. His guerrilla army seems to mainly consist of a small band of smelly nitwits more interested in banter than fighting, but it's all besides the point. Torrid Zone is a place where nothing is serious, and all the real action happens in the form of zingers paving the way for Nick and Lee to fall into each other's arms.

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The Movies Of James Cagney

All movies starring James Cagney and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Other Men's Women (1931)

The Public Enemy (1931)

Mutiny On The Bounty (1935, uncredited extra)

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Torrid Zone (1940)

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

Blood On The Sun (1945)

The Time Of Your Life (1948)

White Heat (1949)

Mister Roberts (1955)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: White Heat (1949)

A hard-hitting and action-packed gangland thriller, White Heat boasts an absorbing story, enduring characters and James Cagney in top form.

Cody Jarrett  (Cagney) is a ruthless, psychotic gang leader. He leads his mob on a daring armed robbery of a mail train in the California mountains, killing several innocent men in the process. Cody is unhappily married to Verna (Virginia Mayo), but his real, intimate attachment is to his Ma (Margaret Wycherly). Despite the large cash haul secured from the train robbery, there are deep divisions within Cody's gang, amplified by the need to hide out in a cold mountain cabin. His second in command "Big Ed" Somers (Steve Cochran) has ambitions to usurp Cody's authority, and Big Ed also has his eyes on Verna.

By tracking Ma's car, US Treasury investigator Philip Evans (John Archer) closes in on the gang's hideout, forcing Cody into the open. To escape facing justice for multiple murders, Cody confesses to a lessor non-violent crime and is sentenced to a relatively short stint behind bars. Evans is not fooled, and inserts undercover agent Hank Fallon (Edmond O'Brien) as Cody's cellmate to keep tabs on Cody's plans and uncover the identity of his money-laundering associate. Hank gradually gains Cody's trust, and just in time. Despite Ma's best efforts, Big Ed and Verna forge an uneasy alliance and make their move to oust Cody. He breaks out, retaliates, and plans his next big job: a payroll robbery at a chemical plant.

Perhaps the finest example in Warner Bros. long catalogue of hardboiled crime thrillers, and a magnificent highlight in James Cagney's career, White Heat is a complex, gripping tale of rampant gangsters and the policemen charged with tracking them down. Director Raoul Walsh expertly constructs a compelling three-act drama over almost two hours, with no wasted moments and a level of tension than increases as Cody's options are gradually diminished.

With a finely polished script by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, the first act introduces Cody, the gang, wife Verna and Ma, and it is the uncomfortably close relationship with Ma that immediately jumps out as the biggest influence in Cody's life. As he suffers from severe migraines, it is Ma who comforts him, encourages him to get to the "top of the world", and advises him on how to manage his gang members. Meanwhile, Cody treats the luscious Verna with nothing but disdain.

The second act switches gears to life in prison, and Walsh patiently allows Hank to gain Cody's trust, no easy task when Cody's natural instinct is to suspect everyone. It's a careful, layered process, police work at its best within the jungle rules of incarceration. White Heat is notable for highlighting excellence in advanced police techniques, including the use of multiple unmarked squad cars to surreptitiously track Ma's vehicle, and then radio signal emitters to remotely triangulate the location of a moving truck.

And finally Walsh steers the film towards a sensational climax, Cody finding renewed resolve to reassert his authority, seek revenge on those who betrayed him and pull off a spectacular payroll heist, with Hank caught in the dangerous middle.

Cody Jarrett emerges as a rounded, genuine, highly-strung and enduring villain, struggling against mental illness, the emotional scars of what must have been a twisted childhood, and frequent physical pain. While never slipping into false sympathy, Cagney allows Cody to become a believable person never equipped to understand the destructive consequences of his actions or the feelings of his victims.

Wycherly's role is small but unforgettable, a manipulative mother never seen to be violent but nevertheless capable of motivating her son to extremes of cold-blooded cruelty. The undercurrents of complicated physical attraction remain just beneath the surface, but there is never any doubt that mother and son are too close, Ma is Cody's biggest cheerleader, and he lives his life to please her.

With gritty, bullet-drenched and often explosive action driven by a psychotic criminal striving for the top, White Heat sizzles.

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Movie Review: Mister Roberts (1955)

A World War Two multi-character drama set on a cargo ship in the Pacific, Mister Roberts features a dream cast in fine form debating man's destiny and military discipline. But the film can't quite shake its more hokey elements and the confining stage origins.

With World War Two coming to its conclusion, the US cargo ship Reluctant is on duty somewhere in the Pacific, keeping the rear lines supplied under the baking sun and very far away from any combat operations. Lieutenant Doug Roberts (Henry Fonda) is the executive officer, has the respect of the men, and shields them from the dictatorial antics of Captain Morton (James Cagney). Also on board is the world-weary "Doc" (William Powell) and the young Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon). The latter is in charge of "laundry and morale", but is trying to ride out the war while doing exactly nothing.

Roberts is desperate to be involved in combat missions before the war ends, and repeatedly requests reassignment to the front lines. Morton knows that Roberts is essential to the successful functioning of Reluctant, and refuses to endorse Roberts' applications. With Morton pushing the crew ever harder, Roberts has an opportunity to relieve the mounting pressure on his men, but at the cost of his own principles and desires.

Through a combination of round-edged drama and mild humour, Mister Roberts celebrates the men who missed the business end of the war and yet contributed the unglamorous work that ensured success. It's a rare perspective, with a focus on friction, camaraderie, restlessness and boredom among men stationed far from home and far from the action, suffering through all the drawbacks without any opportunities to confront the enemy.

The film is dominated by the talent of a fine cast, and the performances overcome a somewhat creaky script weighed down by the story's theatrical roots. Despite Fonda, Cagney and Powell (in his last film role) all being too old for their roles, they deploy the full depth of their talent to give the film a distinguished air. The younger Lemmon mugs his way towards an Academy Award as the officer who moves from the fringes of trouble towards the eye of the storm, in what would prove to be a template for his career persona.

A troubled production featured director John Ford sparring with Fonda, an altercation that eventually led to a physical tussle. Ironically, it was Ford who had insisted on Fonda reprising his Broadway role as Roberts, despite Warner Bros. worries that he was too old. Fonda had also spent seven years away from the movies, and the studio was concerned his screen appeal was dimming. Ford's ill health eventually forced him to quit the project; Mervyn LeRoy and an uncredited Joshua Logan (director of the stage production) finally tidied up the project with plenty of reshoots.

Almost the entire film takes place on the Reluctant, and creating two hours of war drama with no enemies in sight and no shots fired unsurprisingly proves to be a stretch. In between the unfolding tension between Roberts and Morton, there are long-winded filler scenes about sailors ogling on-shore nurses; nurses coming on board the ship for no defined purpose; and the manufacturing of a cheap whiskey-like concoction from an assortment of chemicals. Ensign Pulver gets to play with a large home-made firecracker, and eventually manages to flood the boat with soap suds in a sequence better suited to broad vaudevillian farce. Apart from making the point about the soul-crushing boredom of service in the war's deep background, these scenes add little to the film's central narrative while consuming plenty of trite minutes.

The story that does matter is a battle of wills, effectively delivered: the principled Roberts believes the war of his life is passing him by; the tyrannical dufus Morton considers captaining the Reluctant to be the pinnacle of his career and needs Roberts to stick around since he holds the men together. The playful Pulver, the one character with something resembling an arc, is the clever but carefree officer who will grow into his responsibilities.

The script by Logan and Frank S. Nugent settles for a tone of light drama with occasional dips into more serious territory. But on the small boat there is not much room for nuance: when the central conflict between Roberts and Morton spills into the open, it's all conveyed in stark contrasts between villainy and sacrificial heroism, the emotions setting sail into simplistic waters. Mister Roberts avoids complexities, but does contemplate different layers of ambition.

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Movie Review: The Public Enemy (1931)

A hoodlum's rise-and-fall in the criminal underworld, The Public Enemy unleashed James Cagney's career and popularized gritty and violent crime dramas as a defining genre for the Warner Brothers studio.

From a young age friends Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are petty thieves on the streets of an unnamed city (assumed to be Chicago), stealing small items and selling them to local sleazoid Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell). Tom's older brother Mike (Donald Cook) doesn't approve of Tom's criminal tendencies, but is powerless to stop him, while Tom's Pa is abusive and Ma (Beryl Mercer) turns a blind eye. When they grow older, Tom and Matt (Cagney and Edward Woods) are recruited by Putty to rob a fur coat warehouse. When the theft goes wrong, Putty abandons Tom and Matt and they have to fend for themselves. Tom never forgets the betrayal.

With prohibition in full swing, Tom and Matt graduate to the underworld operation of Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor), who admits them into an elaborate bootlegging and intimidation business, in partnership with suave crime boss Nails Nathan (Leslie Fenton). Flush with money, Tom buys flashy new clothes and acquires Kitty (Mae Clarke) as a girlfriend, but he eventually tires of her whining and replaces her with Gwen (Jean Harlow). Meanwhile, Matt befriends Marnie (Joan Blondell), while Tom's ill-found wealth further alienates Mike. When a gangland turf war erupts, Tom and Matt are drawn into the lethal side of the crime world.

Cagney's coiled rat-a-tat energy jumps off the screen with a dangerous intensity. His brutal screen magnetism as a budding gangster forced astute director William A. Wellman to switch roles and give Cagney the plum assignment of Tom Powers, relegating the more sophisticated Woods to the support role of Matt (Woods' career never recovered).  As Tom Powers, Cagney's fists are restless, always itching to punch either playfully or violently. Cagney smiles and smirks as Powers intimidates his way to the middle ranks of the crime world, never hesitating to cash in from what doesn't belong to him.

Cagney's impact comes from his seeming enjoyment of the violence, whether Powers is shoving a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face or firing a bullet at close range into his pleading victim. When Powers resolves to march into a one-against-many climax to the gang turf war, it's impossible not to admire his courage, dense as it may be.

The Public Enemy builds momentum around Cagney's performance, the wide world of crime revealed as Powers grows from petty theft to warehouse break-ins and then the pinnacle of Depression era gangsterism, the manufacture, distribution and forced sale of prohibited alcohol in mass quantities. As the cash rolls in so do the standard perks of the criminal world in the form of outlandish cars, expensive threads and easily impressed dames. Mae Clarke, Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell play the girls with more looks than brains, desperate enough in desperate times to associate with the likes of Tom and Matt, somehow imagining that such men can ever offer a secure life.

Wellman keeps the action rolling at a machine gun clip, alternating impressive action scenes from the crime world with Tom's ever evolving private life and his steadily deteriorating relationship with Mike. With his money Tom temporarily buys the illusion of happiness, but with his permanently adversarial outlook on life, he is never in a position to distinguish between real fulfilment and the fleeting rewards offered by ill-gotten gains.

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Movie Review: The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

A romantic comedy with two stars operating out of their normal zone of comfort, The Bride Came C.O.D. is vaguely likeable but rarely sparkles.

In Los Angeles, heiress Joan Winfield (Bette Davis), daughter of tycoon Lucius K. Winfield (Eugene Pallette), agrees to marry bandleader Alan Brice (Jack Carson), much to the disgust of her father. Looking for a scoop, gossip reporter Tommy Keenan (Stuart Erwin) convinces the couple to fly to Las Vegas and elope. Financially strapped independent airline operator Steve Collins (James Cagney) strikes a deal with Lucius: Steve will kidnap Joan to prevent the marriage and deliver her back to her father in exchange for a much-needed monetary reward.

The plan goes sideways when Steve's plane, with the kidnapped Joan on board, crash lands into the desert near the border between California and Nevada. Steve and Joan make their way to the almost-abandoned mining town of Bonanza, where they find "Pop" Tolliver (Harry Davenport), the one remaining resident. As Lucius, Alan, Tommy and police authorities scramble to make their way to Bonanza, some to proceed with the wedding, others to prevent it, and the cops to arrest Steve for kidnapping, a thorny romance blossoms between Joan and Steve.

The Bride Came C.O.D. is a pleasant diversion, with some good dialogue, passable comedy and an efficient running time of just over 90 minutes. Joan frequently tangles with cactus, the detour to an abandoned town is a fresh angle, and the character of Pop, making up the population of one, instills a healthy dose of caustic humour.

But casting the queen of drama and the king of gangsters in a romantic comedy was always going to be a risky proposition, and The Bride Came C.O.D. does not escape the predictable pitfalls. Davis and Cagney do their best, and are never less than engaging, but the required chemistry simply never materializes, and the lack of heat is not helped by pedestrian character sketching.

At least three writers had a hand in the slight script, which nevertheless forgets to flesh out Joan and Steve. She's a flighty heiress fighting for independence from Daddy, he's a scrappy pilot fighting to save his business, and that's all that Davis, Cagney and director William Keighley have to work with. As they stumble through the desert and then tangle with Pop and the mine tunnels of Bonanza, precious little else is revealed about the supposed lovers. Joan and Steve have to end up together because they are the two lead characters, and not because they ever come close to finding true feelings for each other.

The film ends with some prolonged confusion regarding the exact location of Bonanza: whether it's in California or Nevada may decide if Steve can be arrested and whether Joan and Alan can get legally married. The Bride Came C.O.D. is similarly caught straddling the fence, with some good elements but not enough momentum to decisively stake out its territory.

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Movie Review: The Time Of Your Life (1948)

A whimsical slice of life and semi-serious drama, The Time Of Your Life gets lost in flighty side stories about poorly sketched characters. Whatever weight the original play may have carried has long since been lost, and the screen adaptation is almost dumbfounding in its lack of focus.

The events take place over one day at a single location, Nick's Saloon and Entertainment Place on Pacific Street in San Francisco, a reputable establishment on the wrong side of town. Owner Nick (William Bendix) holds court, serving customers and hiring oddball talent, and his regular customers include the inexplicably wealthy and somewhat eccentric Joe (James Cagney), who seems to mostly enjoy getting to know people and helping them with sage advice, while endlessly repeating the same two songs on the jukebox.

Tom (Wayne  Morris) is Joe's sidekick and errand boy, and the customers who drift in and out of Nick's on this day include Kitty Duval (Jeanne Cagney), a girl with a past; Kit Carson (James Barton), a hard drinking old-timer with an endless number of tall tales, Harry the tap dancer, Wesley the pianist, Dudley the heartbroken young man, Willie, a man obsessed with defeating the pinball machine, and the mysterious and clearly evil Blick (Tom Powers).  Before the day is over, Joe is playing matchmaker for a burgeoning romance between Tom and Kitty, and helping to subdue a rampaging Blick.

A Cagney family affair, with producer William joining his siblings James and Jeanne in pulling the film together, The Time Of Your Life is an adaptation of a 1939 William Saroyan play. The movie never gains traction, the characters remaining lamentably bland, with all attempts at tension, drama, and humour evaporating as quickly as Kit Carson drains his beer. The whole exercise descends into a desperate attempt at delightful quirkiness that instead achieves stultifying dullness. Director H. C. Potter does not appear to even try to break the story out of its stage-bound confinement, although he makes decent use of the many nooks within Nick's sprawling establishment.

James Cagney does his best to inject some soul into the proceedings, and the character of Joe doubtless has a fascinating backstory that unfortunately remains a dense mystery. We are left with Joe proclaiming that he just wants to go through life being helpful and without hurting anyone. Being part of a movie this boring may not actually cause hurt, but it comes close.

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