Curb Your Enthusiasm

7 CHINESE BROTHERS (B+) - God bless Jason Schwartzman.

Writer/director Bob Byington's gently observed character study of a shiftless, drifting slacker and his loyal bulldog trains its focus on Schwartzman's sad-sack Larry and waits patiently for magic to happen. The result is a sweet, sad and funny dramedy about Larry's relationships -- or his inability to fully embrace one, whether it's with women, his friends, or his grandmother (his last surviving relative). The movie has the bubbly, bumbling tone of the adventures of another Larry -- Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" from HBO.

What comes off as tossed-off improv was apparently closely scripted (see the bonus Q&A if you watch on DVD). But there is room for Schwartzman, a wonderfully droll but controlled comic actor, to let his personality carry the film. Schwartzman, a veteran of Wes Anderson's follies and the star of "Listen Up Philip" and HBO's wickedly funny "Bored to Death," takes that personality down a few notches to portray this sullen prankster.

Larry has an abrasive relationship with his grandmother (a welcome, witty Olympia Dukakis), who won't lend him money, even though she's apparently loaded. When he visits her in the nursing home, he banters with his best friend, Major Norwood (Tunde Adebimpe from the band TV on the Radio), an orderly who likes to pose as a doctor to pick up women. Their friendship endures even though Norwood does everything better than Larry and consistently reminds Larry of his own shortcomings. His most trusted companion is a lazy bulldog named Arrow (Schwartzman's own pet), who snorts, sleeps a lot, rides shotgun in the beater Lincoln that Larry drives, and endures Larry's stream-of-conscious witticisms.

Larry gets fired from Buca di Beppo for stealing alcohol to spike his Big Gulps (he's a functioning alcoholic), but, through the remnants of his charm, talks his way into a gig at the oil-lube place in the same strip mall. He crushes on the manager, Lupe, who pities him more than she desires him. Like at his previous job, Larry gets bullied by a muscle-head at the new place. Every night on the way home, he stops at the liquor store for his regular order that gets him through another night in front of the TV.

Little moments add up to a lot here. The opening scene finds Larry musing to Arrow, and demonstrating, how funny it is to hear a Frenchman drop random English words into a conversation. One of his favorite imitations is of a Southerner reacting to a story that he likes. (See the trailer.) He mounts a counter to show off his impersonation of a fat man exiting a swimming pool. It's this latter gag, repeated in the film, that captures the idea that Larry's shtick played out long ago, and he's just coasting along for his own amusement -- only even he is no longer amused by these gags. He's now a masochist who feels he deserves contempt for ending up a failure. When Norwood tops him yet again, in a very personal way, in the movie's climax, Larry is able to be downright magnanimous (perhaps he's finally just given up).

It's that self-loathing of Larry's, tinged with a bemused fatalism, that fuels this long enough to ride out the 76-minute running time. Schwartzman might be an acquired taste, but in Byington's assured hands, he gives a performance that gets under your skin. Larry isn't a minor character; he's just played in a minor key.

BONUS TRACK
GBV alert! The soundtrack features one of the great unrecognized pop gems, courtesy of Guided By Voices. "The Best of Jill Hives":

And, of course, the haunting title track:



The trailer: