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Although it is a movie that lacks an intellectual depth or meaning, “Paul,” the latest collaboration from British scribes Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”), is the first great comedy of the year and a must-see for any fan of slapstick comedy and science fiction farce.
The film is propelled by its talented comedic cast that inhabits the brilliant script and animation with ease.
Most notably, the film is fueled by the wonderful voice play of Seth Rogen, lending his vocals to the title character, Paul, who happens to be an alien that has been hanging around the United States for the past 60 or so years since landing on the planet accidentally in Wyoming.
Rogen is a tour de force behind the CGI character, who has been responsible for constructing the branded image of the American alien through laying the groundwork for pop culture phenomena such as “E.T.” and the X-Files.
About 15 minutes after the protagonist characters, Graeme and Clive, leave Comic Con in San Diego, their soon-to-be alien friend enters the picture, and that’s when the film jolts from another bromance between geek buddies to something more unique.
“Paul” is a comedy unlike any other. Although raunchy, unsophisticated and almost pointless, like most plots of slapstick humor, the film thrives in its obscenity and challenges its viewers to believe in a world that may or may not be plausible.
But the real question that stems from Paul is, “Who cares whether or not outer space is plausible?”
The beauty of being human is our imagination and its endless capabilities, and although “Paul” doesn’t leave its audience with a direct meaning or message (as Paul says to his new friends at the film’s conclusion “I don’t know what you will take from this, maybe you’ll want to be a better person”), the film embraces the ambiguity of life beyond our planet and plays with the idea that there are species out there that may be even more capable than our own. No character signifies this point more than Kristen Wiig’s Ruth Buggs. Wiig nearly steals the show from the hilarious Pegg, Frost and Rogen as the devout Christian whose world is turned upside down when everything she believes in falsified by Paul’s mere existence.
The anti-religion theme isn’t a harmful one, rather a playful one as Ruth goes from someone bold enough to wear a shirt that has Jesus shooting Charles Darwin to someone bold enough to swear all sorts of inventive obscenities that have the two geeks and the alien wondering what is going on.
In the end, the quartet shines as they rush to get Paul back to where he initially landed and hopefully get him back to his native land, away from the American government that has grown weary of his stay.
Other great turns are added from Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, Joe Lo Truglio, Jane Lynch and even the sci-fi mistress herself, Sigourney Weaver, but what makes “Paul” shine is the odd script and slapstick humor.
