4. Frank Allen in Chaos Theory
It’s rare that we get a true screwball comedy here in the 21st century, but this odd little mess of a movie comes pretty damn close. In it, Reynolds plays Frank Allen, a high strung public speaker and efficiency expert who finds his own life unraveling before him after a freak run-in with a pregnant woman. It’s not the best movie, in fact, certain parts of it are pretty sloppy, but the flaws are entirely validated by Reynolds’ performance. He throws out all of his patented likability and embraces the side of his persona that’s more rough around the edges, and the film is served greatly for it. He’s a ticking time bomb here, and it’s a great deal of fun to watch him unravel, piece by piece, as each scene passes. There are some moments of truly inspired comic lunacy here, which take the story in a direction that I gamble was a bit too dark for the studio and audiences to stomach. Not a great film by any means, but certainly a fun one that contains some of the first indications that Reynolds was an actor capable of more than the hand he had been dealt so far.
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