By Amy Eisen, News Correspondent
Who knew Jason Bateman could spell, let alone direct a film? Well, he probably can’t spell without his cue cards, but Bateman made his directorial debut with “Bad Words,” a dark comedy opening Friday.
“Bad Words,” also starring Bateman, follows Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old man who forces his way into a children’s spelling bee and ruthlessly eliminates his competition. It doesn’t matter that they’ve studied for years, have foregone friends to learn Latin roots and are just trying to make their parents proud; Guy Trilby will stop at nothing to win the competition.
Bateman takes a break from playing the likeable pushover he always seems to play, including Michael Bluth in “Arrested Development,” to instead be the crude, foul-mouthed scoundrel that gets to say plenty of bad words. He fires off racist joke after racist joke, right over the heads of the nine year olds he’s talking to. The movie is blatantly R-rated, and can’t be seen by most of the actors in it for another 10 years.
Somehow, Guy still comes off as occasionally likeable, making friends with fellow contestant Chaitanya Chopra, a chatty 10-year-old who just wants some friends other than his spelling cards. Guy takes Chaitanya out on the town, introducing him to booze and prostitutes, and for a moment there he actually seems like a human being. But then the competition resumes and so do Guy’s obscenities.
The reason behind Guy’s desire to win the spelling bee is a lurking question that really only would have mattered had anything really mattered in the plot. This movie is more about Bateman’s stupid pranks and the reactions of the fellow contestants, and their parents, to his antics. Utterly disgusted with him, the organizer of the esteemed spelling bee, played by Allison Janney, does unthinkable things to rid Guy from the contest.
But no one can beat Guy, because not only does he have 30 years on his opponents, he actually can spell. He can spell things like floccinaucinihilipilification, which means estimating something as worthless, as in, while “Bad Words” is no Oscar winner, the floccinaucinihilipilification of it is unfair.
And that’s not all you’ll learn from this movie. There are plenty of neat grammar bombs dropped throughout, including the grammatical significance of the phrase: “why run from fire ants.” Guy, who is quite unwilling to talk about his feelings or motives, lights right up when explaining that that phrase includes every vowel in reverse order. Tell that to the next person who says movies don’t teach you anything.
Luckily, not too much time was wasted watching the kids ask for the meanings and origins of their words. How does knowing that tmesis comes from the Greek work ‘temno’ inform you that there’s no ‘e’ there? Guy never needs that stuff, he just spells it and moves on to the next round.
While the movie in itself is utterly ridiculous, there’s plenty of low-ball comedy to keep the audience entertained. Bateman does his trademark snide remark-and-wink, and the supporting cast does a great job filling in the time when Bateman isn’t making 12-year-old girls cry. So if you’re looking for a great spelling bee movie, because honestly who isn’t, I’d have to recommend “Akeelah and the Bee,” but if you’re a Jason Bateman fan, this tastelessly entertaining movie will do the trick.
