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‘The Upside’ is a cliched mess

Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart star in the unlikely duo comedy

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It’s said that January is one of the prime months that Hollywood chooses to dump its most embarrassi­ng films and The Upside doesn’t exactly disprove that notion.

Few films in memory have squandered so much acting talent in such a cliche-ridden, exploitati­ve and dishonest way. It deserves its frozen grave.

The film stars Kevin Hart as a lazy, skirtchasi­ng ex-con hoping to reconnect with his estranged wife and son. He accidental­ly gets a job taking care of an obscenely wealthy New York businessma­n who became a paraplegic while hang gliding, played by Bryan Cranston. (“You as rich as Jay Z?” Hart’s character asks. “No, richer,” comes the reply.)

You can virtually write the rest as The Upside unspools. Will Hart’s streetwise Dell break his high-class boss out of his luxury Park Avenue apartment and teach him about the joys of corner-bought weed, street hot dogs and driving the older man’s fleet of Ferraris very fast? Oh, yes. Rich white dudes in these films always need loosening up.

Will Cranston’s Phillip teach his young aide about the joys of opera, investing in start-ups, kumquats and abstract painting? You saw that coming, too, huh? Poor black guys in these films could always use some smartening up.

The movie is based on a true story — and lifted from the 2011 French film Les Intouchabl­es — but no one really worked on the shaky racial angle for an American audience. Hart often plays a version of the magical black man, a hurricane of truth who readjusts the stuffy white world. There are moments when race could have been addressed — “Your plantation is bananas,” Hart’s Dell tells Phillip, “but I’m nobody’s servant” — however it’s quickly dropped.

There’s not enough drama and yet not enough laugh-out-loud moments. Hart shines in a scene in which he encounters a high-tech shower with a robot voice in German, but a later scene in which he cuts Cranston’s facial hair is marred by a Hitler joke. When you have hired consummate comedians in Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, relying on a Hitler joke is a sign something has gone horribly wrong.

The film comes with its own heavy baggage, including that it was previously owned by The Weinstein Co., before it collapsed amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal. Reacquired, it is released as Hart deals with fallout over his previous homophobic tweets, not helped now by a performanc­e in the film in which he balks at using the word “penis” and initially outright refuses to change his boss’ catheter because it means touching another man’s privates.

Hart, a comic force, reveals his limits as a dramatic actor in his fish-out-of-water role, while Cranston shows only a few glimpses of his formidable skills, especially when he turns steely. Appearance­s by Nicole Kidman, Aja Naomi King and Julianna Margulies are welcome, understate­d — and completely wasted.

Mostly the problem is that once the filmmakers — led by director Neil Burger — establish their odd couple pairing, they don’t know what to do with it. Dell needs money to repair his family and Phillip needs love after losing his wife. Jon Hartmere’s screenplay needs tension, so it’s artificial­ly added when the rich dude starts lashing out at his staff and growing depressed after a bad blind date. The answer? Our heroes go hang gliding. Roll credits.

Only one person really comes through this whole meandering mess unscathed: Aretha Franklin. The late Queen of Soul, it turns out, is the key that connects Dell and Phillip, particular­ly when it’s revealed that Franklin sang opera, too. Her music fills the soundtrack and that’s the only reason this film gets any points. Better yet, skip this movie and just put on one of her CDs.

 ?? Photos courtesy of STX Entertainm­ent ?? Bryan Cranston, Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Kevin Hart in ‘The Upside’.
Photos courtesy of STX Entertainm­ent Bryan Cranston, Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Kevin Hart in ‘The Upside’.
 ??  ?? Nicole Kidman.
Nicole Kidman.
 ??  ?? Cranston and Hart.
Cranston and Hart.

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