Paul (2011)

Paul (Greg Mottola, 2011) The team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are an acquired taste...at least for me. Some of their stuff is iffy, marginal, borderline—good ideas stretched thin. 

Then, you get something like Paul, which I was late to, but managed to catch on cable and was ready to dismiss until it started to layer in concepts and in-jokes and do something that the two were spotty on when teamed with the brilliant Edgar Wright as their director-co-scriptwriter.

It has a lot of depth. It's a deep-dish dive into American obsession with pop-culture as witnessed by two guys across the pond who should be shaking their heads at the madness, but instead embrace it with the sense of wonder that used to be generated by such things before they got over-merchandised in the marketplace. It's also a neat little throw-back to the older films that inspired the writers

Two nerdy Brit's, Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), are on a U.S. pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic-Con, driving an RV through the stark landscapes of the Southwest U.S., home of test-sites, nuclear landmarks, and fabled numbered Area's of Interest in UFO mythology. They have to deal with the denizens of the area, and one particular stranger with whom they have a close encounter of a vehicular accident kind.

This is Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), an extraterrestrial whose most recent home has been Area 51, where he has been kept under house arrest and study, advising the government on advanced technology and, in return, being kept safe, even ensuring that alien information is leaked through back-channels, just in case his brethren return to find him.

It's a comedic version of E.T. with the lost voyager—but instead of being found by a kid in the suburbs, he's found by the government agencies that want to keep him under wraps. But Paul has outlived his usefulness as a live subject; the reason he's made his escape is that he has been due for vivisection. So, despite the qualms of Clive, the two take on the little alien as a passenger, taking a side-route to San Diego to get Paul to his designated meeting place with his people.

There are, of course, complications. Paul is being sought by government agents in the form of FBI Special Agent Zoyl (Jason Bateman), who is under orders from "The Big Guy"—his female boss communicating over the radio—to track down Paul and return him to Area 51 for disposal. When he is unable to make much progress (given his disappearance from the car that he stole in his escape), she adds to other FBI agents, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio)—who are a bit hapless—to assist, although the three seem to be under different assignments, working at cross-purposes. 

And if things weren't complicated enough, an overnight stay at a trailer park gains them another passenger, Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), the one-eyed daughter of Moses Buggs (the wonderful John Carroll Lynch), the Christian fundamentalist owner of the park—she encounters Paul and the vagabonds have no choice but to take her with them, which worsens the stakes against them and adds one more dangerous element to the many people trying to track them down. Father Moses is determined to track the heathen down and shoot 'em and get his kidnapped daughter back, just like John Wayne in The Searchers or Melinda Dillon in Close Encounters.

It also adds a little nuance to that as he's completely religious and any evidence of there being extra-terrestrial life or hint that we might not have the full undivided attention of God's eye would completely toast his wafer, so to speak. But, he doesn't know about Paul. All he knows is that nerds stole his little girl and he's gonna get her back just as sure as the turnin' o' the Earth. That daughter Ruth is a bit more open to the idea of e.t.'s and wants to help him escape makes her a valuable ally (if risky) and she is rewarded for that by Paul giving her a new eye to replace the one that doesn't work.

Believe it or not, they resist playing "Amazing Grace" in the background of that scene.

There's enough laughs and something akin to warmth in the film to keep one intrigued and it manages to pay off expectations and keep surprising with what turns up and the film resolves itself. And with players like Pegg, Frost, Hader and Wiig on-board, the material will end up being served in the most creative ways possible.

Director Edgar Wright was not along for this fun little journey. In his stead, the director is Greg Mottola, who made Superbad and Adventureland, but, more importantly in my view, he was the director of the pilot for Aaron Sorkin's brilliant HBO series "The Newsroom"—one of those "perfect" examples of really good television wedded to smart ideas. Mottola did amazing work on that, juggling multiple story-lines and planes of view without "losing" any of the viewers. His work on Paul is more sedate, but there is a reverence to making sure that tribute is paid to past touchstones to make sure they have a maximum pay-off.

Plus, it's just funny as hell.

Thanks to Donavan for the suggestion