Springtime for Kabul
R ichie Lanz ( Bill Murray, Groundhog Day ) is a music agent, stuck representing low- end clients with zero talent until he gets a better than usual gig: a USO tour for his client Ronnie ( Zooey Deschanel). The problem is that this show is in Afghanistan. Lanz and Ronnie arrive at the war- torn nation crawling with shady characters: Bombay Brian ( Bruce Willis), Daoud the taxi- driver ( Beejan Land), the prostitute Merci ( Kate Hudson). Things go bad and Richie ends up stranded, without passport and money. After a series of mishaps he launches a crazy scheme: a chance to launch an Afghani pop sensation, Salima ( Leem Lubany), the daughter of a traditional Pashtun village chief. Lanz must somehow use his American wheeler- dealing to undo decades of traditions in time for the finale.
Who is the target audience? Does the movie know what it’s trying to do and say? These are essential questions to ask before making any movie. Rock the Kasbah is confusing on all three counts. The story and situation we can recognise. Murray plays a Broadway Danny Rose - like scrapper who chases success only to trip at the finishing line, and he’s humiliating and wasting himself into middle age. The question is what possible reason is there to send this kind of story and situation, quintessentially American, to Afghanistan during the war on terror?
Then there’s Murray and prima donna musician, Ronnie, stranded in a new land; your basic tourist nightmare comedy. The other genre and settings we can recognise as Hollywood cliché. The Rick Blaine’s café milieu of shady arms dealers, call girls and borders criss- crossing as deals and counter- deals get made. This brings to an unconvincing romance with Kate Hudson. We also have Bruce Willis as a tough guy who does not do a great deal. Then Salima, played by Palestinian actress Leem Lubany, appears and it becomes the kind of well- intentioned social message/ sports movie that is generally poor film- making.
The title Rock the Kasbah comes from the song of the same name by the rock band, The Clash. As it is helpfully clarified at the start, Bill Murray’s Lanz is mistaking North Africa for Afghanistan. Yet, the idea of waving a hand towards America’s shallow perceptions towards West Asia and Afghanistan is not enough when the film fundamentally uses and rests on those same misconceptions. It amounts, at best, to a pre- emptive apology.
That the problems of Afghanistan can be solved by a lay about hack agent from America is pure colonialist fantasy, as is the redemptive vision it offers about schlocky American shows and their regional imitations. The rock music which Bill Murray represents and inculcates is not rock so much as “easy listening” and safe music.
The problem of Rock the Kasbah is chiefly that of tone. Having a fantastic and ridicu- lous premise and a good cast, the movie inexplicably underplays it rather than go over the top. This is a movie for the likes of Mel Brooks or Ishtar, the underrated ’ 80s comedy that starred Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as bad American musicians in the Arab world, which worked, thanks to the abilities of its key actors. Rock the Kasbah fails to use the abilities of its key players. An actress like Deschanel, who gets several gems of physical comedy and who is a charismatic performer, is wasted. A better movie could have been made around her, likewise Kate Hudson’s prostitute is more interesting and ambiguous than that of the main story.
Barry Levinson has made some good movies in the past ( Wag the Dog, Bandits), but this isn’t one of them. There are moments in the beginning and some nice gags and clever parts that almost work.
Bruce Willis steals all his scenes and is fun to watch. But it ultimately goes everywhere and nowhere, which curiously mirrors America’s foreign policy in Afghanistan as of this moment. The writer is programmer,
Lightcube Film Society