Tusk - A film of two halves

Ah, Kevin Smith – I knew him well (mainly in the nineties during his 'Clerks, Mallrats' and 'Chasing Amy' period).  I would always say that he’s one hell of a writer of dialogue, whether his work falls straight into the ‘comedy’ bracket, or he dabbles in other genres, i.e. romance, science-fiction fantasy or horror.  And, this time round, he’s playing with the ‘horror' genre.

‘Tusk’ tells the tale of a complete idiot (played delightfully by Justin Long).  He’s a typical product of the modern age – a podcaster with ideas way above his station.  Yes, he’s a little bit famous, but it appears that a this small amount of fame corrupts almost as much as absolute power.  He thinks he’s ‘it’ and lets everyone know it, whether it’s his co-presenter, his doting girlfriend, or generally anyone he meets along the way.

One article on his upcoming podcast is an interview with a Canadian ‘celebrity’ who’s also made his name on the internet.  Sadly, the ‘celebrity’ in question was so traumatised with his newfound fame that he kills himself (‘selfishly’ in our protagonist's opinion!) leaving our glorious podcaster with nothing to report on while in Canada.  That’s when he happens upon an interesting offer in a men’s restroom.  It leads him to a reclusive hermit, played brilliantly by Michael Parks, who offers to tell him his life’s story.

This is the fun part.  The interaction between the two is just about as perfect as dialogue can be.  The two exchange tales and takes on life in the setting of Park’s gothic mansion.  The tension is cranked right up to the max – you know something is going to happen (something bad, obviously), but you just don’t know what.  This atmosphere is just electrifying when combined with the snappy dialogue.  Everything is going great until...

...the film just kind of switches atmosphere and great dialogue for shocks and grotesque make-up.  Sadly, the shocks and make-up look more cheap (in a budget sense) rather than shocking.  The second half of the film is everything that the first half isn’t, i.e. cheesy.  Yeah, there are a few moments of brilliance thrown in there, but, when you realise what’s actually happening, you’ll probably just shout, ‘What... seriously?’

It feels like someone has tacked a second (different) film onto the first one.  If I was rating the first half I’d say it was awesome.  However, when the gross parts really start coming there isn't really enough material to pad out the film's run-time.  Therefore, there are a few sub-plots regarding other characters thrown in there to drag out the run-time.  Fans of Kevin Smith will like the dialogue (like I did), but a fair few might not really go for this on account of the sudden change in mood that doesn’t fit where the film was originally heading.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that