Lost in Translation

Bill Murray can't save 'Rock the Kasbah's cultural missteps

Bill Murray plays a has-been—or perhaps never-was—rock manager named Richie Lanz, whose favorite client (the insufferable Zooey Deschanel) finds her way onto a USO tour of the war-torn Middle East. Then director Barry Levinson gets carried away with armed showdowns, a hooker with a heart of gold (Kate Hudson) and mansplaining the world to angry Arabs. If the movie doesn't fully collapse under the weight of all that sound and fury, it at least bows. A decade ago, Murray might have been able to carry the film, but in Kasbah he seems utterly deflated. His physical humor falls flat, and those deadpan stares that once communicated so much seem totally blank. Not that he was given a lot to work with. Most of the film's writing comes off as capital-D Dialogue, and Bruce Willis is a boring pick for the ex-Army shit-kicker who serves as Murray's chauffeur. Danny McBride steals a few scenes as a crooked arms dealer, and Murray's Poncho (Arian Moayed) is compelling as a Bee Gees-loving cab driver. Mostly, though, the supporting characters are incredulous or angry extras, seldom given any room to come alive. The real trouble with Kasbah, though, is a sharp change in the plot's trajectory midfilm that completely flattens most of its characters and risks being culturally offensive. We meet a young Afghan woman (Leem Lubany) whose dream is to appear on Afghan Star—the country's American Idol equivalent. She is given precious few lines, no semblance of an inner life and little motivation beyond pleasing Allah with her singing. I can hear the sighs and groans. "It's just a comedy," you say. And if Rock the Kasbah were a fully slapstick affair, I wouldn't nitpick it so much. But while the film's not-so-subtle message is about women's liberation, male characters run the show. This makes the whole affair feel like watching the old guard slide into obscurity, attempting to reach out to a world that scares and confuses them without actually leaving their comfort zone.

ROCK THE KASBAH
Directed by Barry Levison
With Murray, Hudson and Lebany
Stadium 14
R
106 min.

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