The promotional hashtag for this film is #WalrusYes, after seeing Tusk I’d rather say
#WalrusMeh
Yes this is Kevin Smith’s 11th feature film, the man who brought us Clerks, Mallrats and
Chasing Amy in his early career who once stated that he would retire from directing
after 10 films, and maybe, just maybe, he needs to possibly reconsider this.
Tusk is based on a random Gumtree advertisement that Smith and his long-time
producer buddy Scott Moiser discussed on one of their many Smodcasts about a
person seeking a companion to dress as a walrus. From here the Gumtree ad has been
fleshed out into the story of a Podcaster who travels to Canada in search of a story
which results in him becoming part of an old mans sick and torturous games.
I wonder how many other films have been created based on Gumtree ads? Was
Christopher Nolan searching for a second hand chair when he stumbled on the idea for
Inception? Or were the Wachowski Brothers searching for spare parts for a bike when
they found an ad that inspired The Matrix? (because that might definitely explain the
sequels.)
Now I know Smith has an army of loyal fans (2.66 million Twitter fans and counting) and
I run the risk of angering said fans but sometimes you’ve got to call a spade a spade
and this spade is a completely uneven mess. The film doesn’t really know whether it
wants to be a comedy or a horror movie and unfortunately the balance and the skill-set
is not there to make both the horror and the comedy work together. Mostly because the
comedy is entrenched with in-jokes, that only Smith’s inner circle of listeners would
understand - leaving the rest of the audience out of the loop.
There are some good points: the reveal of the “walrus” is not dragged out and the reveal
is pretty horrifying and disturbing. Michael Parks is absolutely brilliant in this film as the
menacing and completely deranged Howard Howe, his drawl and stories will echo in
your head and send a chill down your spine.
The rest of the cast, with the exception of Genesis Rodriguez, are actually quite
annoying, especially the “mystery” cast-member. This cast member is not properly
credited in the film at first it feels like it is going to be a cameo but they remain for the
rest of the film - this unfortunately becomes incredibly tiresome and annoying which is a
pity considering which actor it is. I don’t want to spoil who it is but I will say that he’s a
51 year old actor, who has played a famous pirate - a lot, who also works with Tim
Burton - a lot, so maybe the annoyance is just par for the course based on the many
roles he has played over the last couple of decades.
The film is filled with lots of monologues, lots and lots and lots of monologues. It can
build up tension at times but often it shows just how little story was actually there for
fleshing out.
Don’t get me wrong I was a huge Kevin Smith fan back in the day, and I emphasise
‘was’, I don’t have anything against the guy, I just don’t think he has made many good
film choices over the last 13 years. Sure the guy gave us Clerks II in that time but that
was him, in his own words, ‘retreating back to the well‘ after the failure of Jersey Girl. I
think that it is great that Smith is working outside of his comfort-zone however I can’t
help but think that there were ‘better’ stories that he has discussed in Podcasts,
Smodcasts, Comic-Cons, Q&A Evenings, drunken or stoned rants, etc.; that could have
been turned into a film...
One and a half out of five thinly stretched ideas.
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