The Great Buck Howard

“Someday we’re not gonna be here,” says protagonist Troy Gable in “The Great Buck Howard,” “and if that’s the case, I wanna spend the time I have here doing something that makes my heart race.” Coming from most characters, this statement might sound heartfelt, if somewhat trite. In the context of this film, however, Troy simply sounds insane.

Troy (Colin Hanks) is a young law student who drops out of school against his father’s wishes, having decided that writing is his true calling. When this dream doesn’t materialize immediately, he decides to accept the first job he can find and ends up becoming the road manager for Buck Howard, a self-important, washed-up mentalist hoping to relive his former fame. Troy’s father (Tom Hanks, both on screen and in reality) cannot understand his decision—and neither can the audience.

Buck Howard (John Malkovich) is nasty in person and not very talented on stage. His signature fist pump of a handshake and the catchphrases that turn up in every performance quickly become tiresome. Buck’s story is based on the life of The Amazing Kreskin—the mentalist and TV performer who achieved a brief moment of fame in the 1970s—but Malkovich’s performance turns him into a two-dimensional cartoon.

For some reason, Buck’s old-timey routine fascinates Troy. “He was cheesy, no denying that, but he also seemed to have a timeless charm that the audience loved,” Troy says in voiceover as the camera captures different moments of Buck’s act. The film must rely on telling the audience how to perceive Buck, because it’s hard to see any of this purported “timeless charm” in Buck’s shows. From his coin drop trick to his famous illusion in which he finds money that the audience has hidden, his performances are not particularly exciting. It is difficult to muster the same desire to learn the secrets of his tricks that his audiences in the film seem to have.

Buck is supposed to be a symbol of small-town America; he may not be glamorous and he has lost his nationwide fame, but he maintains a sense of pride in what he does. Toward the end of the film, Buck admits to Troy, “I don’t really belong in Vegas anymore. I belong in places like these... I love these towns. I love these people.” This would be a touching confession, if his attitude towards provincial living weren’t so condescending throughout the film. At one show in Ohio, he refers to the husband and wife who run the theatre as “these two hayseeds,” and is furious at the amateur introduction the woman gives to his act.

The film’s high points are the moments in which Troy, rather than Buck, is the focus of the action. A young man’s struggle to reconcile his desire to follow his passion and his need for a paying job is both captivating and particularly relevant during the country’s current economic state. Troy’s confrontations with his father are some of the most absorbing moments in the film, and not just because it is amusing to see Tom Hanks and Colin Hanks together on screen as father and son. The dramatic tension between these two characters is far beyond anything Buck Howard can create with his magic acts.

Troy sticks steadfastly to his decision to do what he loves, rather than what is most profitable. Seeing his determination, it is impossible not to admire him, though perhaps not as ardently as Buck’s publicist Valerie (Emily Blunt). However, after watching Buck Howard’s routine again and again for 90 minutes, one is more inclined to believe Valerie when she says, “Life is not magical. No one is supposed to do anything.”

—Staff writer Rachel A. Burns can be reached at rburns@fas.harvard.edu.