The Baxter

Lions Gate Films | Release Date: August 26, 2005

6.5	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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MarkB.Sep 26, 2005

I almost always root for the baxter. A baxter (which is a term invented by and for this movie) is the nice but underwhelming guy that the leading lady in romantic comedies dumps for the leading man. The all-time classic baxter is, of course, I almost always root for the baxter. A baxter (which is a term invented by and for this movie) is the nice but underwhelming guy that the leading lady in romantic comedies dumps for the leading man. The all-time classic baxter is, of course, Ralph Bellamy (The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday); Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee and Franchot Tone have played more sophisticated variants; frequent more recent baxters have included Bill Pullman and, surprisingly, Pierce Brosnan in his pre-007 days. (Katherine Hepburn's social-climbing fiance in The Philadelphia Story and the fraternity guy that Katherine Ross deserts for Dustin Hoffman AFTER saying "I do" in The Graduate don't count as baxters because they're supercilious, chauvinistic creeps--and are conventionally handsome enough to have no problem finding somebody else.) I've sometimes wondered why at least some movie women weren't perceptive enough to realize that perhaps solidness, dependability and lifetime companionship might perhaps equal or beat orgasms that feel like the 4th of July and Halley's Comet combined, and that maybe baxters are better choices in the long run. Which is why I loved writer-director-star Michael Showalter's idea of making the baxter the central chatacter and telling the whole stoty from his point of view...until I actually saw the movie that emerged from it and realized that this is another one of those concepts that looks great on paper but on screen, not so much. Showalter proves to be a good enough actor (his Elliott is of necessity rather one-note, but still sufficiently sympathetic and appealing), a haphazard screenwriter and a very clumsy director. He tries too hard to express the same idea in too many different ways--the focus should be on Elliott, but there are far too many other baxters in the movie, including one who beat the odds and married the girl anyway; the problematic flashback structure includes all kinds of OTHER confusing flashbacks and flashforwards; scenes that start off as clever and amusing are dragged on past any point of interest; scenes in which Elliott's dream-girl fiancee (Elizabeth Banks) calls off and then resumes the wedding are methods of unnecessary torture for both Elliott and the audience since we already know how things are going to turn out. Most frustrating of all is that Elliott's true soulmate--sweet, smart, lovable wallflower Cecil, played by sweet, smart, lovable anything-but Michelle Williams (whom I still remember fondly from the underrated satire Dick as a high schooer who, with Kirsten Dunst, was infatuated with a certain, controversial US President)--is constantly put on hold while everyone in the audience is way ahead of Elliott in realizing that she's the one for him (and, quite frankly, for most of the rest of us!) This is what makes the predictable twist-on-a-twist ending so ultimately hollow (if you see it and ponder its implications for a few moments, you'll know what I mean); while watching the credits, I thought of at least two other ways for Showalter to get the same results in a far more satisfying and meaningful manner. Perhaps Showalter (or preferably someone else) can try the concept again, casting the adorable Williams as sort of a female baxter: a woman who, like the late Barbara Bel Geddes in Vertigo or Cynthia Stevenson in The Player, is undervalued and mistreated by the male lead because she's far too good for him. And I've got a name for the character and the movie, too: "The Georgette".… Expand

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