You could say I should have known better. You would have been well within your rights to ask when did Eddie Murphy last lead a decent movie? Well sighing aside I think I am just a film fan desperate for the Eddie Murphy of old to return and make us laugh like he used to. As so it is that we arrive at my review for his 'now on DVD' comedy Imagine That.Let's be clear friends. There is no way in you know what that I would normally decide to watch an Eddie Murphy movie about a father whose daughter's imaginary friends tell her which companies her dad's clients should invest in. But I had it on good authority that this was Mr Murphy's 'comedy comeback' and a fun, funny, family movie so I figured I would believe again in the power of Eddie and give it a try.
So Murphy plays divorced father and investment broker Evan Danielson, a man whose career has always come first but he is now having to adapt, somewhat unsuccessfully, at parenting alone when his daughter Olivia (played by a very adorable Yara Shahidi) comes to stay. With his position of power at his company under threat from rival broker Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Hayden Church) Evan discovers that his daughter's imaginary friends are able to predict which investments will go well and which will go south. Of course this leads to much Daddy/Daughter bonding band with Imagine That being a Hollywood morality tale Daddy really isn't in it for the time spent with Olivia but instead, you guessed it, purely to advance his career. It doesn't take a veteran film critic, or even me, to guess in the first 10 minutes of the film that he will get his comeuppance and realize the error of his ways thus leading to an epiphany of what's really important in life and that the end of the movie will be filled with hugs, kisses and sweet smiles (spoiler alert ... that's exactly what happens).
Along the way Murphy does occasionally display some of the comedic talent that made him so successful in the past. There are a couple of charming scenes when he is singing for Olivia's imaginary friends that really are quite touching. Sadly these are too few and far between in the film and that's a shame because Murphy really does have an on screen charm when he has the right script. From Trading Places to Beverly Hills Cop to Doctor Doolittle this man can win over an audience in a way few others can. But it seems too often he has accepted sub-par scripts (The Adventures of Pluto Nash anyone?) that don't do his talent justice and talent he still has, big-time. I remember watching his performance in Dreamgirls and thinking wistfully, why don't we see Eddie Murphy lead successful movies anymore?
Imagine That is not helped any by a very pedestrian performance from an actor I really like, Thomas Hayden Church, whose character of a white guy pretending to be a Native American wouldn't have been quite so offensive if it wasn't so badly performed. In any number of scenes not involving the distractingly cute Shahidi I was drumming my fingers wondering how long there was left to go ... surely not the best of outcomes in any comedy.
Let's be honest here I think we all tend to dial down our expectations when it comes to lighthearted films like this but even with that adjustment made Imagine That was a disappointment. Yes it was better than many of Murphy's choices in the past but that's a very low bar to judge the actor against. With the best will in the world I'm afraid I can't recommend you spend 107 minutes of your life watching this movie.
Rating: **
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