It wasn’t that long ago when I finally filled in one of my cinematic blind spots with Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. I generally like Anderson’s work, but there are a few of his movies I have, for one reason or another, not gotten around to yet. As such, when I get the chance these days, I try to fill in those blanks.
That means when I found one of my streaming services was carrying Anderson’s debut film Bottle Rocket, well, I guess I figured I had another one to fill in.
Anthony Adams (Luke Wilson) is in a mental hospital when he’s broken out by his ambitious friend Dignan (Owen Wilson). Granted, the hospital is voluntary and Anthony can leave at any time, but he didn’t want Dignan to feel like his elaborate escape plan was unnecessary and went along with it. And that more or less explains all there is to the friendship between these two men. Dignan has plans, including a 75 year plan crime spree while Anthony just goes along with it.
Granted, their plans also involve their mutual friend Bob Mapplethrope (Robert Musgrave), but that comes more from the fact Bob appears to be the only man they know who owns a car.
Much of the movie runs that way. Dignan has way too high an opinion of himself. His biggest successful robbery is of a book store, hardly a huge score, and all his efforts get him is, when he and Anthony are hiding out on the lam at a motel, is Anthony meets and falls in love with Inez (Lumi Cavazos) despite Anthony not knowing Spanish and Inez not knowing English.
And that, more or less, is the movie. Anthony started off in a bad place mentally but ended in a good one after he found love with a nice woman. Dignan has plans and ambitions that aren’t as grand as his elaborate plans make them out to be, but he may have gotten what he wanted in the end. He doesn’t seem to mind his fate much. Then again, this is a Wes Anderson movie, and I don’t think most of them end with his protagonists minding their fate much. It just doesn’t fit the mood of his movies.
But this was his first, as it was for both Luke and Owen Wilson (with a third Wilson brother, Andrew, having a nice supporting role), and that means we haven’t quite gotten the Anderson style that his fans and detractors are used to. There’s still the central breeziness and sardonic delivery style, and the humor is about the same, but the general look of the movie, with symmetrical sets full of items that make everything and everyone on screen look like they could have come from some previous time period but not quite. Oh, the soundtrack has what sounds like B-side songs all the same, but this may be the most contemporary-looking movie Anderson has ever made.
The real charm though is Owen Wilson’s Dignan. Though Luke’s Anthony may be more the main character, his character arc is still fairly conventional (even by Anderson standards), but Dignan really brings an energy to the screen, whether it comes from his elaborate plans or the fact said elaborate plans never quite work out the way he wants them to. Owen, billed as “Owen C Wilson,” may not have actually planned to star in the movie, but he’s there all the same and he easily steals the movie, even from his generally likable brother Luke.
Still, as much as the movie is a charming breeze, it still comes across as little more than a mild distraction. Anderson fans should check it out to see where he came from, and it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend an hour and a half, but I also don’t know if anyone, including Anderson fans, should go out of their way to see it. Best to stick with Anderson’s better known works, especially if trying to see what makes the man’s work turn out the way it does. Bottle Rocket is basically a light piece of work that acts as a pleasant prototype to better things.
Grade: B
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