This movie was met with lukewarm reviews and modest box office success but I thoroughly enjoyed it as the tone of the movie was spot on and moreover, the performance of Brendan Fraser as the socially awkward Elliot Richards (and his many wished for personas), was simply brilliant – so much so even thinking about some of the scenes has me in a fit of giggles.
Elliot is in a very boring, routine job, is infatuated with his co-worker Alison and doesn’t really have any friends, well not real ones anyway, until one day he is approached by a stunning version of Satan in the form of Elizabeth Hurley, herself on pretty good form in a role that I feel was made for her!
Satan opens with her usual sales pitch of offering Elliot anything he wishes, and goes one further to grant him a total of seven wishes. The catch? She requires his soul in return as payment, (there is a hilarious bit of dialogue at this point) and after a bit of soul-searching (see what I did there?) and devilish persuasion from Satan, Elliot decides id he uses these wishes properly, he might finally be able to get the girl of his dreams , Alison Gardner, so agrees to sign the contract.
It is at this point the movie takes off and Fraser takes centre stage, revelling in some hilarious guises and persona’s including; a 7ft basketball star, a wealthy and powerful businessman, an award-winning literary scholar and for me, the best of the bunch, a sweet, sensitive and caring guy that women crave. Of course, as expected, the Devil must put her own little twist on each his wishes, with hilarious results!
Bedazzled offers something so few comedies do these days – laughs, and there are plenty of them, without relying on endless juvenile scatological gags. I thoroughly enjoyed the physical transformations that Elliot, Alison, and Elliot undergo each time he makes a wish. The spins on the wishes are especially funny, for example, when Elliot wishes for power and wealth, he wakes up as a Colombian drug lord…….whose kingdom is quickly collapsing around him and his wife, Alison, is having an affair with the stable boy, who happens to be one of his ‘friends’ from wok. Elliot soon discovers that when dealing with the devil – surprise, surprise – nothing works out the way he envisages.
As for Fraser, he has proven himself capable of doing both a poor man’s Indiana Jones in The Mummy as well as serious roles such as Gods and Monsters. However, with this he shows just how versatile he is, as rather than one role, he takes on seven different roles and does so admirably. As I mentioned earlier, I felt this the role of Satan was made for Liz Hurley, she is deliciously wicked and her spin on the ultimate temptress is hilarious and all of the supporting cast, who it has to be said, go through 7 different characterisations themselves in each of Elliot’s wishes – do a great job too.
I would highly recommend this movie is you simply want to sit back and laugh for 90 minutes.