Sweet tale celebrates die-hard superfans
it isn’t always cosplay; it’s a matter of life ( and death).
That’s partly what “Brigsby Bear” is about, although mostly it’s a sweet and sometimes- delightful melancholic story of a lonely man saved by imagination and love.
The notion sounds like a bushel of cornball — and it might have devolved into pure ick had director Dave McCary not led from the heart and wasn’t adept at navigating seemingly clashing tones.
McCary hooks viewers early with an uneasily funny, strange opener in which James and two others — Jane Adams plays April; a warm, wonderful Mark Hamill plays Ted — engage in “Brigsby” banter.
Soon, sirens are flashing and the movie darkens; a few beats later, it brightens, then swerves into silliness, only to veer into seriousness.
Much of what follows involves James’ confusing, awkward reintroduction into the world — what some people call adulthood.
There’s the family he has never met (Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins, Ryan Simpkins); a friendly cop ( Greg Kinnear); and a clueless therapist ( Claire Danes). There are new buddies (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) — who with smiles, mood enhancers and some unpersuasive narrative nudging — help usher James into the here and now.
Yet James, having been cut off from Brigsby World, can’t quit the bear, who is seen every so often saving the day in some of the wittily conceptualized, visually degraded TV clips sprinkled throughout the movie.
And, really, why should James turn off the love?
Mooney, currently cutting it up on “Saturday Night Live,” beautifully manages the twists and tonal fluctuations in “Brigsby Bear.” ( He wrote the story and shares screenwriting credit with Kevin Costello.)
It’s no surprise that he can sustain and complicate a deadpan.
But what makes the character work is the unconditional emotional seriousness that shapes the performance, deepening each glance and gesture.
McCary fills the movie with modest comic jolts — from James’ shock of hair to the near- Lynchian cardboard surrealism of the “Brigsby Bear” show.
The biggest jolt, though, is how each laugh brings forth more feeling in a movie that flirts with tragedy but opts for joy.