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Bob, Verushka & The Pursuit Of Happiness: Review

BOB, VERUSHKA & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
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Director and cowriter Roger Stigliano's spin on Jonathan Demme's SOMETHING WILD (1986) by way of Jez Butterworth's BIRTHDAY GIRL (2002) was made on an ultra-low budget — $30,000 — and has the on-the-fly, barely-holding-it-together feel of a first film. But it's actually his second feature; the first, a shaggy little gay coming-of-age story called FUN DOWN THERE was made in 1988, and Stigliano doesn't seem to have refined his craft much in the intervening decade and a half. Divorced, living with his sister and reduced to selling aerosol sprays, nebbishy Bob Friends (FUN DOWN THERE star Michael Waite, who also cowrote) has hit a personal low. He lives for his dream of opening Baby Food, a fast-food joint for preschoolers where everything is colored pink or blue, but in the meantime Bob's close to losing his sales gig because he just doesn't have the passion it takes to move cans of new-car smell. Bob's boss orders him to spend a day watching and learning from crackerjack saleswoman Stephanie (Gheree O'Bannon). But though the spiffy car he climbs into is Stephanie's, the woman at the wheel is restless Russian con-woman Verushka (Yelena Danova), who's on the run from her cousin, contract-killer Ilya (Pavel Lynchnikov), and just boosted Stephanie's ride. Verushka is a natural teacher: She immediately orders the balding Bob to spruce up his wardrobe, get a hairpiece and invest in a little jewelry. Successful, she purrs, is sexy, and the first step to being successful is looking successful. It takes the depressed Bob a while to realize he's soaking up lessons in grifting, not sales, but even after he wises up, Verushka's free-spirited scheming is such larky fun that he sticks around for the ride until her get-rich-quick plans start to have bloody consequences. Though it seems cruel to disparage a scrappy little independent picture that actually has some ideas — in this case, about the dark price of evangelical capitalism — but a story about the allure of American consumerism demands a seductive gloss that Stigliano can't deliver. And Waite is not only uncharismatic, but his gee-whiz voice-over is almost unbearably grating — it's hard to empathize with a guy who makes you want to put your fingers in your ears. The film's secret weapon is its kicky soundtrack, an eclectic hodgepodge that ranges from Paul Revere and the Raiders' "Hungry" and Annette Funicello's "No Way to Go But Up" to snippets of Nino Rota's theme for the "Toby Dammit" segment of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968). A bright future awaits the crew member who did the music clearances. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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