"Big Fan" Review - Written by Anthony T

Big Fan
Year: 2009
Director: Robert Siegel
Studio: First Independent Pictures
Stars: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Rapaport
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 94 Mins
Official Website: http://www.bigfanmovie.com/




“Big Fan” is the directorial debut from writer Robert Siegel, who wrote the screenplay to Darren Afronosky’s critically acclaimed film, “The Wrestler”. “Big Fan was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The film is about Paul, a parking garage attendant (Patton Oswalt), who is the biggest New York Giants fan in the world. He lives with his mother, while always calling into the local sports talk radio show, and berates a Philadelphia Eagles fan (Michael Rapaport). His family is not supportive of what he’s doing, as he does nothing with his life. Then, one night while with his best friend (Kevin Corrigan), he meets Giants linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station. They followed him to the local strip club, when they hang out. Paul decides to the football player’s autograph. Things don’t go to plan, as he ends up getting beat up. Soon after the incident, his life comes crashing down, as everyone around him engage in a tug a war and questions his beliefs.

Going into this film I was expecting a silly comedy, considering that the film stared Patton Oswalt, who has appeared on TV shows such as “The King of Queens” and “Reno 911”. But instead, this film is a dark comedy that has a very good dramatic performance from Oswalt.

“Big Fan” is a dark comedy that goes into the dangers of fanaticism. Siegel does a very good job with his direction. He doesn’t make this film come off, as a silly film. He does that, by making the tone of the scenes dark throughout. It’s one to make the tone in the screenwriting process dark, but if the locations and the performance don’t match the tone then the film isn’t going to work. By doing that, it also gives the impression that you’re watching a character study/dark comedy, instead your normal silly comedy. One of the reasons that he gets this tone is the way he directs Patton Oswalt’s performance. That’s the thing that surprised me most about this film. Oswalt’s performance was very good as it was dark and not normal comical self that you’ve seen on television.

But what makes this film very good, the ability to make his story about the dangers of obsession, instead turning this into an all out comedy, which it could have been. One of things that Siegel does well, he focuses on the main character’s obsession that he has for his team and mental state. Siegel did that very well to give his main character some depth. I liked he focuses on it throughout, as some other writer would have ended it, by the first act. Siegel makes his character and scenes seem authentic. I like how, he spends time developing his main character’s obsession with this player, as it explores the dangers of being a rabid follower of the team. You do get to see the effects that it has on him and his family, who are convinced that he is mentally unstable. Another thing that makes the screenplay dark is the way that he doesn’t try to add a subplot that helps the main character. By doing that, it keeps this dark tone that this film is going for. That in return, makes it a very good film.

Big Fan is an entertaining film with a surprisingly good performance from its main star, Patton Oswalt. The film is theaters in limited release. For showtimes and dates, you can goto: http://www.bigfanmovie.com/showtimes.html for more information.

Review Rating: Four Stars