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CIFF: Made in China

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 10, 2009 4:00PM

2009_10_10madeinchina.jpg This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the 45th Chicago International Film Festival.

"Novelties are the benchmark of a free society." So says Johnson, a young man who believes his new idea will be the biggest novelty since the dribble glass and fake dog poo. Somewhere in this mess of a movie is an unmade, fascinating documentary about the history of practical joke props and how their manufacture was eventually outsourced to China. Someone else should make that documentary.

Made in China is irritating. Deeply irritating. This movie is more irritating and artificial even than Away We Go, which seems like a piece of neorealism by comparison. It almost completely squanders the goodwill earned from the occasional laugh out loud gag, clever idea or evocative detail by choosing to focus on a protagonist who's such a lunkhead, he makes Forrest Gump look like Slavoj Žižek. Johnson is the kind of guy who replies to a craigslist ad placed by a "Chinese entrepreneur" and wires him money, sight unseen, before jumping on a plane to Shanghai to arrange for a meeting with a textile manufacturer. Within the first twenty minutes you just want to smack him on the side of the head. And it only gets worse.

Perhaps the worst thing about this movie is its fake, completely undeserved happy ending. Johnson is a gullible rube and the filmmakers obviously think that we are too. Unless you like automatically like indie comedies that feature whistling on the soundtrack, Made in China is one to avoid.

Made in China
screens October 11 and 13.