Film #196 - Night at the Museum (2006)
Night at the Museum was a surprise hit late in 2006. Many had marked the box office race as completely settled, when out of the blue, Museum had not only a strong opening, but incredible legs. It’s always a question whether phenomenon like this deserve such success, but in this case, it certainly does.
Night at the Museum tells of struggling father, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), who takes a job at the Museum of Natural History as a night watchman. He learns from the current staff (played by Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs) that due to the magical nature of one of the items on display, the museum’s exhibits come to life at night and it is part of Daley’s job to keep them all in line. Among the “living” exhibits are Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who acts as a sort of mentor to Larry, cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson), who feuds with Roman Octavius (Steve Coogan), Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), cavemen, an Easter Island head and a T-Rex skeleton. While negotiatin his way through his new job, Larry must also deal with his ex-wife and his son, both of whom have lost confidenace in him as one scheme after another has failed him. But just as Larry starts to feel at home at the MNH, the real secret behind his hiring may ruin everything.
It certainly succeeds on the level of pure spectacle. The exhibits are handled extremely well and are as realistic as any CGI creation can be, filling the museum with bustling life. They interact in a believable way and Larry’s difficulties in dealing with them do not seem contrived or just there to show off the effects.
Where the film is not as successful is in its human story. I understand that a movie like this can’t get by on premise alone, no matter how good that premise is. But did we really need *another* divorced dad laerning to come to terms with his disaffected son? Is there *no* other dynamic out there to be explored? Thankfully, this subplot, along with Larry’s budding romance with museum employee Rebecca (Carla Gugino) really are just filler and little screentime is wasted on them.
This is certainly not a cutting edge film. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before and usually as well or better. But it is an extremely well put together film and never fails enough to hurt its entertainment value. Another big positive is that it almost never resorts to lowbrow humor so common in “family” films these days. Night at the Museum is a film that can work for just about anyone. No small feat.