NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
[] (three stars)
A smart “Dumb and Dumber.” Running time: 86 minutes. Rated PG (very mild vulgarity). At the Lincoln Square and the Sunshine.
‘NAPOLEON Dynamite,” a charming and often hilarious comedy about the ultimate high school nerd, is refreshing for its simplicity and its originality in a marketplace dominated by soulless blockbusters.
With a style that invites comparisons to such indie vets as Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater and Alexander Payne, this Sundance favorite is an unusual mainstream effort by Mormon filmmakers: director Jared Hess and his wife Jerusha, who co-wrote the clever script, met as students at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City.
Their lead is another BYU alumnus: the unknown Jon Heder, who gives a perfectly pitched, deadpan performance as the nerdy, bespectacled Napoleon, who sports curly red hair and a wardrobe straight out of the late ’70s, complete with Moon Boots (the unremittingly ugly furniture is also out of that decade, though the movie is ostensibly set in the present day).
Slight, whiny and always exasperated, Napoleon rides a girl’s bicycle and lives on a farm in rural Idaho with his mostly unemployed older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), who is conducting an Internet romance with a faraway black woman named LaFawnduh (Shondrella Avery), who may or not actually be a man in drag.
The brothers are looked after by their dotty, dune-buggy riding grandmother (Sandy Martin) and Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a macho bully and failed football player who hawks breast-enlargement products door to door.
Napoleon predictably doesn’t get any more respect at high school, but he plows ahead with plans to run his newly acquired (and only) friend, a dim Mexican named Pedro (Efren Ramirez), for class president at their whitebread school – against a popular blonde (Haylie Duff, Hilary’s sister).
The other plot thread in this loose collection of episodes is Napoleon’s fumbling romance with Deb (’90s child star Tina Majorino), who sells handicrafts and takes pictures at the mall.
The funniest scenes in what amounts to a smart, no-budget “Dumb and Dumber” have little to do with the storyline: Napoleon’s faltering attempts at skateboarding and his sprinting in a tuxedo to pick up Deb for the prom after his ride doesn’t work out.
“Napoleon Dynamite,” a rare indie effort so innocent it carries a PG rating, is a little movie with a lot of heart and a lot of laughs.