By Cynthia W. Gentry, © 2000 by Cynthia W. Gentry, published on Dailygossip.com, 2000; www.dailygossip.com.
I have a confession to make. Yours truly has participated in a dog show, and it was a moment of humiliation that has scarred me forever.
The scene was third grade. In a twisted version of “Show and Tell,” we’d been allowed to bring our dogs to school. My dog, a mutt named Socky (in honor of his four white paws, of course), decided that rather than parading around the playground like the rest of the kids’ pets, he would wrap the leash around my legs. Everyone thought that seeing me as a some sort of canine Maypole was quite hilarious, but they don’t have to pay my therapy bills today.
All this came back to me as I watched the antics of the humans in Christopher Guest’s new mockumentary “Best in Show,” an often-hilarious send-up of the dog show circuit, with the Mayflower Kennel Club show in Philadelphia standing in for the real Westminster Kennel Club show. (Am I the only one who fears that I’ll come across the Westminster Kennel Club show on TV and be sucked in for the rest of the evening?) Guest, the genius behind the newly reissued “This is Spinal Tap” and “Waiting for Guffman” turns his lens on owners and pooches with frequently side-splitting results.
Like “Spinal Tap,” director and co-writer Guest films “Best in Show” as a mock documentary, complete with talking heads and shaky camera work. For the most part, Guest simply turns the camera on his talented cast and lets them riff. And what a cast it is. Where to begin?
For example, there’s Catherine O’Hara and Guest’s co-writer, Eugene Levy, as Cookie and Gerry Fleck, the proud owners of a Norwich terrier named Winky. The two never hit a false note as the suburban couple trying to ignore the fact that Cookie seems to have have known, in a Biblical sense, everything in pants between Florida and Philadelphia (the home of the Mayflower Dog Show, the location of the climactic—no pun intended—sequences, which are in fact loaded with more suspense than most of today’s action thrillers). John Michael Higgins is outstanding as a gay man with a fondness for kimonos and Shih Tzus, as is Michael McKean as his bemused significant other. These two couples were, in my humble opinion, the best part of “Best in Show.”
The other contestants are nearly equally hilarious. Guest himself expertly plays Harlan Pepper, a bloodhound-owner from North Carolina who has a secret fondness for ventriloquism, while Jennifer Coolidge nails (so to speak) Anna Nicole Smith clone Sheri Ann Ward Cabot, with Jane Lynch as the enthusiastic handler of the prize-winning Standard poodle Rhapsody in White.
I’m not quite sure what to make of Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock as Meg and Hamilton Swan, a couple of yuppies with a shared love of orthodontia and my own beloved J.Crew catalogs. I found myself laughing out loud at them in the beginning, but as their anger at each other grew, so did my own discomfort. These people are so tightly wound that it’s painful to watch.
And that could be the problem with Guest’s improvisational technique. I know that many people will disagree with me, but there was a point about two-thirds of the way through “Best in Show,” as in “Spinal Tap,” where I felt the humor wearing a little thin, despite Guest’s talent at moving the action forward. Some scenes just go on too long—displaying, once again, the value of good, tight screenwriting. For example, after the first few scenes, I began cringing every time Fred Willard, as a dim bulb TV commentator, appeared on screen. As with many writer-directors, Guest seems to be enjoying himself so much that he’s reluctant to cut bits that simply drag (including his own). Fortunately, by the end of the film Guest has recovered the pacing; the requisite “six months later” scenes were worth the price of admission.
I’m also not sure what his attitude is toward the people he portrays. With “Spinal Tap,” the objects of Guest’s satire richly deserved scorn that Guest heaped upon them. But the characters in “Best in Show” are by and large to sweet and hopeful that I found myself rooting for them rather than laughing at them.
But don’t let these minor quibbles stop you from seeing “Best in Show.” I laughed long and loudly with the rest of the audience. Two days later, many of the scenes (particularly the ones featuring the sensational Higgins) still bring a smile to my face. I don’t think my current pet, a golden-eyed gray cat named Isabelle, will be winning any blue ribbons soon, but a gal can always dream.