The claim on the box for The Great Buck Howard is “Greatness is a state of mind” which is something that could be taken for a gag or taken seriously depending on the kind of person you are. For this movie, both definitions applied: the idea that if you’re great in your own head, that’s really what matters, as well as the angle of how suffering from delusions of grandeur can trick you into thinking you were greater than you actually were.
As for Mentalist (not magician, that’s a four letter word like “relaxation therapists” are not hookers) Buck Howard (John Malkovich), who’s made 61 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, he’s stuck living in a world where everyone has realized he is a washed up old talent but him. He acts like he’s the hottest thing since Technicolor, demanding the kind of care, attention, and detail that would usually come from traveling divas or Andy Kaufman. Hiring on recently ex-law student Troy (Colin Hanks), he travels the country in cities whose supermarkets are still named after local residents, performing amazing tricks for his old Johnny Carson viewers hoping to one day catch a break into the mainstream audience again.
Buck Howard is an easy person to hate. He’s an asshole to everybody who has ever acknowledged his “greatness” but doesn’t treat him like God. He has socially awkward quirks and mannerisms like a physically demanding handshake, a smile you just want to punch, and signed pictures he uses to secretly grade the value of his adoring fans. If The Great Buck Howard feels you are a more valuable member of society than the dust on his shoe, you get a color photograph and a gentle brush off, for every second matters and you’re wasting them.
Though the movie tries to focus on Road Manager Troy’s perspective, that’s really mostly smoke and mirrors as Troy is not so great as the term “greatness” would usually imply, he is simply a point of reference for those of us who are not Buck Howard. But as we learn more about the how and why Buck is in the situation he is in doing the things he does, the title-instilled “greatness” begins to take on a different, sweeter meaning and with a snap of the finger we all find ourselves gazing at the marvelous site that is The Great Buck Howard wondering what we had been doing for the previous hour and a half sitting in disgust and resentment.
The Great Buck Howard does a stellar job at sending a message that one day I will learn to live by, which is probably why I liked it so much: Do what you love instead of what puts you on top, because if you’re doing what you love, you’ll always feel on top no matter what. I am an individual that is always looking up a staircase that I believe has no end. I tend to exhaust myself racing up as many steps as I can in a short time thinking that the only forward progress that matters is the kind that is blatantly obvious to everyone following my journey. It’s gotten me in trouble often.
This movie might not be as good to other people, but it was fun, funny, I loved the characters and the depth of each one was handled beautifully and meshed together surprisingly well. It wasn’t an uproar, but everything seemed to work well. It was smart, well-planned, and even had some very key "fucking-Inception-top" twists that added mystery and intrigue, as every good magic show should have. I highly recommend this movie personally, and it's great to give another drama a fantastic 9 dustbusters out of 10.
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