DuckA beguiling and disappointing debut  August 22,
2007 2:22:00 PM
VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Duck.
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In Nicole Bettauer’s beguiling, disappointing feature debut, Arthur (Philip Baker Hall) wanders a desolate LA with his pet duck trying to help people. The year is 2009, Jeb Bush is president, and with pensions and Social Security gone, Arthur has nowhere to turn. Bettauer shows a sharp understanding of our nation’s moral fall over the last 10 years and where that might lead us, but her simplistic portrayal of Arthur as innocent martyr undercuts the worthy theme. A character that represents the last moral voice in a world corrupted by the Bush ethos shouldn’t be reduced to a cliché. Hall does his best, spouting out Bettauer’s laconic one-liners and looking absurdly hopeful, but it’s all he’s given to do. Maybe Bettauer feared that a more complex character would distract the audience from her vision of the world headed by yet another Bush. Hall, who musters up so much emotion within a narrow role, deserves better, though the Aflac duck is all he’s quacked up to be.
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A same-sex Harold and Maude
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A warm and fuzzy film
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Get out of the theatre with your bad self!
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