Lyle Lyle Crocodile review: Javier Bardem, WTF

At first look, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile appears to be like like one other overblown adaptation of a beloved youngsters’s ebook. It’s received a extra “life like” however nonetheless cartoonish CG rendering of a basic character (like Peter Rabbit or Clifford the Large Crimson Canine); a setting in storybook — which is to say, vaguely Canadian-looking — New York Metropolis (additionally like Clifford); and egregious movie star voice casting (that includes Shawn Mendes as Lyle!).

The remainder of the solid, nonetheless, is a bit more eclectic and higher-end than standard. The mother and father of its younger human hero are performed by Constance Wu, who has had two current hits with Hustlers and Loopy Wealthy Asians, and the great character actor Scoot McNairy. Furthermore, Lyle has a featured function for quadruple Oscar nominee (and one-time winner) Javier Bardem. And the character calls for the forbidding star of No Nation for Previous Males and Skyfall carrying suspenders, throwing colourful smoke bombs, and working towards soft-shoe with a CG croc. What’s occurring right here?

It’s not that uncommon for a significant star to log time in a film for youths, particularly after they have youthful youngsters of their very own, as Bardem does. For that matter, the function of Hector P. Valenti, a gregarious wannabe “star of stage and display” per his enterprise card, who discovers the singing-not-speaking crocodile Lyle in a rundown pet store, shares some widespread floor with Bardem’s current flip as a charming-yet-caddish Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos. Each characters are born entertainers, equally able to inspiring belief and suspicion. Beneath regular circumstances, Bardem’s look right here would in all probability make some type of sense. However this model of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile isn’t regular circumstances.

Photograph: Fernando Decillis/Sony Footage

In some methods, this can be a good factor. The film doesn’t pervert Bernard Waber’s collection of image books concerning the apartment-dwelling Lyle; there aren’t many clear makes an attempt to curry the favor of latest children. Lyle doesn’t dab, or get into Fortnite; his lack of dialogue is a blessing. Even the movie’s most trendy components — the presence of celebrity vocalist Mendes, crooning a collection of syrupy pop numbers curated by songwriters du jour Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Pricey Evan Hansen, The Best Showman) — communicate to a need to make one thing resembling an old style musical. (There are about 5 musical numbers, and there in all probability ought to have been extra.) The film is an earnest story about anxiety-ridden younger Josh (Winslow Fegley) adjusting to life in a brand new metropolis with the assistance of his new pal Lyle, who suffers from stage fright.

But Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is surprisingly complicated for a film concerning the sweet-natured antics of a child and a singing crocodile. On the heart of that confusion is Bardem, enjoying a personality imported straight from the books. The movie begins with what is basically a remake of the basic Looney Tunes brief “One Froggy Night,” solely performed for pathos as an alternative of guffaws. Valenti is first seen flim-flamming his method into an audition for a present that has already rejected him. He’s clearly determined for some type of showbiz success, so when he discovers Lyle, he sees a ticket to the large time. He trains the younger croc in an elaborate song-and-dance quantity, which Bardem and the cutely animated Lyle carry out with nice gusto, and rents a theater to carry out for the general public. Lyle will get nervous and goes silent, similar to that maddening cartoon frog, resulting in Valenti’s monetary destroy. So he goes on the highway to earn some cash (doing who is aware of what) and dig himself out of his money owed, leaving Lyle in a Manhattan condo to be found by Josh and his household.

Photograph: Sarah Shatz/Sony Footage

However when Valenti returns to reclaim his crocodile, the film turns into oddly murky. Is that this character a whimsical dreamer? His outlandish outfits and prompt acceptance of a singing-but-not-speaking crocodile counsel so. But he’s additionally framed as a hustler and a charlatan, hoping to use Lyle for fame and fortune. At one level within the film, he appears to have offered Lyle out and ratted him out to animal management, for a supposed profit that by no means actually materializes and truly appears fully at odds with what he needs for the remainder of the film. Later, after redeeming himself, he additionally makes reference to being Lyle’s supervisor, regardless of seeming like a man who craves the stage, not behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing. (I believed my confusion may need been old-man brain-fog, however a 6-year-old marketing consultant who watched the film with me confirmed that Valenti’s motivations made little sense.) Is he simply an agent of chaos? Is that this man genuinely unwell?

Bardem does his greatest to roll with the punches, maybe hoping that if he retains issues shifting for lengthy sufficient, if he throws sufficient smoke bombs and dances with sufficient zeal, he’ll uncover an precise character arc, even when it’s a foolish one. As a substitute, his honest however scattered efficiency is emblematic of the whole film. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile feels prefer it’s been rewritten and reworked into incoherence; it’s a film that by no means will get a deal with on the issues its people are purported to be fixing, and comes alive primarily when its characters are singing and dancing. It takes Javier Bardem’s admirable willingness to cavort round in a prime hat after a profession filled with heavier roles, and turns it right into a needlessly convoluted WTF.