In Magnolia campaign, an indication of what could
happen

By Steven Zeitchik

It's been so long and twisted a road for "What Just Happened," poster child for all those misbegotten Sundance expectations, that for a while it was easy to forget the movie has yet to actually come out.

For better or worse, though, a whole bunch of trailers and spots won't let us forget. In what surely has to be a record for a Magnolia release, a stream of commercials is currently playing for the industry satire (which doesn't even open for another week) across a host of sports, news and other live programming; we must have seen nearly a half dozen ads in the last three days alone. Barack Obama buys less airtime.

It's a move that seems puzzling given the tepid industry word. But Magnolia, in a blitz one suspects is being driven if not actually financed by parent co 2929, is attempting yet another launch, this one directly to consumers (after the movie first didn't ignite the minimajors/specialty divisions in Park City, followed by an international-media play in Cannes that didn't amount to much either).

There's reason to doubt this latest attempt will work any better than the previous ones. And there  are things not to like about the movie. In some ways it reflected a cynicism that defined the specialty business during its foreign sales-enhanced boom -- that is, if you stuff a movie with enough stars (and with Sean Penn, Bruce Willis and Robert De Niro, stuffed it is), everything else will follow. The reality is of course hardly that simple, and one senses in rival producers and specialty execs a feeling of validation or even schadenfreude that it didn't all work out as planned.

But the truth is some of that schadenfreude is misplaced. First off, the movie's not as bad as some have it; it hs the occasional funny moment and some solid performances.  And while it's no great artistic achievement, Art Linson and Barry Levinson clearly made it a labor of love and, of course, a poison pen letter to a certain type of Hollywood, and on those terms it kind of works. It would have been perfectly tolerable had it just been made -- for a price -- at a specialty division: would have gotten some decent reviews, some star promotions and come and gone harmlessly, living on in DVD and on a pay-TV deal like so many other mixed efforts.

Most important, it would had it not been for sale at a film fest during a writers strike, which is what turned it into -- unjustifiably -- a lightning rod for a stormy indie-film market.

The only thing that does leave a sour residue is those commercials. Magnolia continues to have impeccable taste; they've already released one of the best films of the year in "Man on Wire," and over the last few years have been responsible for gems like "The Host" and "Jesus Camp." All did at least respectably, despite campaigns that were more media- than marketing-driven. And we suppose a few extra ads for "What Just Happened" won't kill anyone in any event. But seeing this constant stream of spots for Willis and De Niro one wonders what would happen if some of Magnolia's other movies got the same marketing treatment. We have a feeling it would be plenty.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!