REVIEW: ‘Despicable Me’

In Christopher Booker’s “The Seven Basic Plots,” he writes of Rebirth that, “A hero or heroine falls under a dark spell which eventually traps them in some wintry state, akin to living death: physical or spiritual imprisonment, sleep, sickness or some other form of enchantment.  For a long time they languish in this frozen condition.  Then a miraculous act of redemption takes place, focused on a particular figure who helps to liberate the hero or heroine from imprisonment.  From the depths of darkness they are brought up into glorious light.”

“Despicable Me,” then, is yet another film in the long line of “scoundrel with a heart of gold” films, and therefore offers no real surprises.  Just as we know that Ebenezer Scrooge will become a nice guy, and Han Solo will come back to help blow up the Death Star, we know exactly what will happen to Gru (Steve Carell), our not-always-loveable protagonist.

Gru is not a grumpy super villain because he’s under an enchantment, but because of a more modern ailment—a disinterested mother.  His arch-nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel), is similarly the playboy son of a father he can never please.  Being a super villain, apparently, is less about evil and more about mommy and daddy issues.

Perhaps the closest we get to evil is Gru’s assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand—strangely channeling Terence Stamp).  Dr. Nefario is single-minded, focused on the evil task at hand, and with the exception of his hearing problems (well exploited in the trailer and commercials), is probably the one character best poised to actually become a super villain.  All the truly “despicable” characters are minor characters:  Dr. Nefario; Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett), the president of the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) who finances the super villains; and Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the proprietor of Miss Hattie’s School for Girls, who runs her orphanage through cookie sale quotas and a Box of Shame.

Naturally, all of this will be lost on the kiddos, who will love the 3-D effects (especially the roller coaster ride), and the Minions (if you haven’t guessed by the previews, the Minions steal the film—and if you get the special phone app from Best Buy, you can actually understand what they’re saying), and the three orphans whom Gru originally brings into his life as a means to defeat Vector, but—did you see this one coming?—instead conquer Gru’s heart, bringing him up into that “glorious light.”

“Despicable Me” is worth seeing at a matinee—particularly one of those Saturday morning matinees with all-you-can-eat pancakes.