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Great One biopic is just average
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times If all you needed for a quality biopic was great mimicry, producers of CBS's Gleason would already be clearing shelf space for an Emmy or two. That's because the movie's star, Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett, pulls off comic Jackie Gleason's mannerisms so well, you'll swear he's somehow channeling the Great One from the great beyond. It seemed an unlikely feat: Garrett, a towering presence at 6-foot-8, hardly seems a doppelganger for the portly Honeymooners star, who died in 1987. Reportedly, producers had to build special sets, hand co-stars platform shoes and design special makeup to help build the illusion of Garrett as Gleason. Still, it's Garrett's talent as a mimic -- if you've ever seen him break into a devastating Bill Cosby bit on Raymond, you know what I mean -- that makes the difference here. Gleason's world-weary frown as he drags on an ever-present cigarette; his sly grin while mugging for the camera or cracking a joke; his bombastic performances as Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners -- Garrett nails it all. Unfortunately, you need a few more things to make a good biopic, especially with a subject as expansive as TV pioneer Gleason. Like a decent script. And other compelling characters. And some unexpected insights. Gleason offers none of that. Instead, viewers get a rapid-fire spin through the comic's life that can be summed up in a single phrase: Jackie Gleason was a heavy-drinking, philandering, overbearing jerk, partly because his dad was an alcoholic who left the family when he was young. How did Gleason go from a second-rate standup comic (accused of stealing other comics' material) to a comedian funny enough to get a movie deal with Warner Bros. and, eventually, his own TV show? How did Marilyn Taylor (played in a surprisingly brief appearance by ex-Becker co-star Terry Farrell), a dancer on Gleason's show and one of his many extramarital flings, wind up becoming his second wife? Why did Gleason walk away from The Honeymooners when the show was at its height? Gleason offers few answers, preferring to let Garrett wallow in Gleason's shortcomings: his compulsive womanizing, drinking and control-freak tendencies. It's a simplistic picture that does little but darken Gleason's reputation while building Garrett's portfolio as an actor. At a glanceGleason airs at 9 tonight on WTSP-Ch. 10. Grade: B-. 'Bang Bang You're Dead'Before checking out Garrett's spot-on Gleason impression, head over to Showtime for one of the most compelling made for TV movies of the season, Bang Bang You're Dead. In many ways, this is the quality TV movie Gleason is not. Starring Ed's Tom Cavanagh and The West Wing's Janel Moloney as high school teachers, Bang Bang is the chilling story of a student's struggle to cope with the suspicions and fears of others months after he is apprehended while building a bomb to blow up the football team. Set in a chaotic, cliquish high school, where metal detectors and searches by police dogs are unfortunate facts of life, Trevor Adams (Ben Foster) is starting the school year under a cloud. The previous year, authorities found a bomb (minus explosive) in his room with plans to target the football team; now students, teachers and people in the community treat him as a dangerous pariah. Cavanagh's Val Duncan offers Adams the lead role in a play called Bang Bang You're Dead, about a student who kills his parents and several classmates, only to be haunted by the spirits of the dead. Duncan is convinced that the play -- which exists in real life and was written by Extremities playwright William Mastrosimone, who also wrote Showtime's movie -- will help the community and Adams work through the complex issue of what compels kids to kill. Parents, teachers and administrators resist the play. And Adams' involvement with a group of loners who dream of staging their own Columbine massacre adds a predictable twist. But Adams, who keeps a video diary documenting the football team's systematic bullying of weaker kids, winds up forcing the school and the community to confront the fear and despair that pushes some kids into violence. It's a visceral story that unearths troubling truths about contemporary society, everything we say we want from a TV movie. Here's hoping enough people take a break from CBS' overhyped Gleason to see it. At a glanceBang Bang You're Dead airs at 8 tonight on Showtime. Grade: A.
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