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Rating: 2.5 stars

All movies seen on 12/03/2007

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The Wendell Baker Story (2005)

Directed by Luke Wilson, Andrew Wilson

Comedy

Overview

Luke Wilson plays a good-hearted ex-con who gets a job in a retirement hotel. Three elderly residents help him win back his girlfriend as he lends them a hand in fighting hotel corruption.

Rated PG-13 | Length 99 minutes

Actors

Luke Wilson | Eva Mendes | Jacob Vargas | Owen Wilson | Harry Dean Stanton | Kris Kristofferson | Seymour Cassel | Eddie Griffin | Will Ferrell | Angela Alvarado | Jo Harvey Allen | Buck Taylor | Billy Joe Shaver | Azura Skye | Nicole Swahn | Heather Kafka | Richard Jones | Steve Stodghill | Mark Wallace | Raymond Gestaut | Dennis Williams | Spencer Scott | Glen Powell | Joel Trevino | James Coolidge | Mac Davis | John Wirt | Mike Ritchey | Lucina Paquet | Charles Sanders | Randy Stripling | Robert Musgrave | Brady Coleman | Paul Wright | C. Anthony Jackson | Grover Coulson | Grant James | Phyllis Browne | Dudley Browne | Mathew Greer | Brad Arrington | Mark Seliger | Abel Pastor | Matt Hensarling | Garry Peters | Marco Perella | Jesus F. Tellez | Ashley Andersen | Isis Stephanie Cerda | Raul V. Carrera | John C. Wells | Brother

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

This review originally appeared as a DVD review for PopSyndicate.com.

Wendell Baker, unfortunately we hardly knew ye after the first twenty minutes.

Luke Wilson makes his directorial debut with The Wendell Baker Story, a movie he and rarely-seen brother Andrew scraped and clawed to get made.

This is the tale of the egotistical Wendell Baker, an advocate of immigrants, illegal or otherwise, who gets popped for fabricating Texas state drivers’ licenses. He leaves his girlfriend Doreen behind, but isn’t torn up about it because he’s having such a great time in Huntsville Prison. Doreen eventually gets the message and stops going to see him, but then Wendell wises up and gets himself paroled so that he can win her back. Baker’s parole job is set up at Shady Grove retirement Home, which is run by an uncaring, corrupt nursing staff. So, he bonds with the seniors in an attempt to find a way to get Doreen back and take down the nursing staff.

While the movie isn’t terrible, it doesn’t approach great either until it focuses for a few brief moments more on the seniors than Wendell. Luke himself gives a memorable early performance, if a bit over the top in a Burt Reynolds-Smokey & the Bandit way early on. But as directorship goes, Andrew and Luke’s inexperience shines through; the film has mild multiple-personality disorder. Is it the story of a con-man winning a woman’s heart, the sexual adventure of old men or is it a grey-haired caper pic? There was a glimmer of gold in each of those touched threads but Luke’s script is a jack of those trades and a master of none.

The Wilson Brothers also can’t get performances as appealing as Luke’s own from the rest of the cast, especially from a mahogany Eva Mendes. The rest glide through their parts with little real effort. Owen Wilson as Neal and a thankfully subdued Eddie Griffin do their respective Owen/Eddie things, but with a darker flavor while Seymour Cassel and Harry Dean Stanton play it the same way they have in every role in the latter days of their careers. The character of Wendell Baker had the most potential but whether it’s due to the inconsistent script or inconsistent directing, Luke’s own early spectacular performance is left behind after the first twenty minutes; the character of Wendell is abandoned for a run-of-the-mill Luke Wilson character when subdued was called for. Wendell Baker as we knew him makes his return briefly, although subdued this time when the original arrogance was needed to bring the film home.

The special features are fairly run of the mill with a making of featurette, bonus scenes and, thankfully, a non-boring commentary with both Andrew and Luke. The real gold here is ““Afternoon at Luke’s,”” which is a spectacular conversation piece centering on senior character actors Seymour Cassel and Harry Dean Stanton, their rich lives and their experience on the movie; you’ll see a frank side of them you’ve probably never thought of.

What’s obvious about The Wendell Baker Story is that Luke was trying to recreate the highly overrated Bottle Rocket. The passion for the project and the setting is all too obvious on screen, but it works about as well as that Wes Anderson movie, which is to say mildly amusing but not iconic.

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