MOVIE REVIEW : No Hat Trick for ‘Perfectly Normal’

Its publicity calls “Perfectly Normal” (at the AMC Century 14) “a magical comedy” about a perfectly normal guy persuaded by an extraordinary friend to act upon his dreams. It’s a film that wants so much to be loved and is crammed with so many engaging characters that it’s like kicking a soft-eyed cocker spaniel to mention that those dreams are a device that simply makes no sense.

Sometimes films about loners, eccentrics and dreams zing right to the target, with everything from “You Can’t Take It With You” up through “Nashville” and “Choose Me.” “Perfectly Normal,” by Quebecois director Yves Simoneau working in English for the first time, certainly yearns to be counted in that company, but Simoneau and his writers, Eugene Lipinski and Paul Quarrington risk far too much on the frail appeal of eccentricity.

The story crosses the various worlds of a wan, withdrawn young Canadian brewery worker, Renzo Parachi (Michael Riley), goalie for the company hockey team and secret opera lover. Renzo, who sports Peter Sellars-like hair and a hangdog look, has been made even more remote by his mother’s recent suicide.

Bustling into his life comes a truly larger-than-life interloper and possible con man, Alonzo Turner (British comic actor Robbie Coltrane). Occupation? “I’m in the people-pleasing business. Capiche? “ Alonzo takes over Renzo’s life as well as his mother’s bedroom in Renzo’s spacious apartment. Preparing sumptuous meals for the two of them, nudging Renzo into dating the snack-bar waitress (Deborah Duchene) at the rink, Alonzo also pries out of Renzo his passion for opera.

From this comes Alonzo’s grandiose scheme for a restaurant, financed by anyone but him, with singing, opera-costumed waiters, and as the piece de resistance , a staged scene from one of the masters. If opera-kitsch sounds fabulous to you, then “Perfectly Normal” is your movie. Why hard-core opera lovers would cheer--and pay--for the sight and sound of a sweet ordinary guy in “Norma” drapery, singing her duet in a perfectly ordinary voice with another croaking amateur, isn’t quite clear, lifelong dreams notwithstanding.

There are hockey subplots and girlfriend subplots and a whole gentle theme about finding oneself, all exceptionally well acted and occasionally tartly written, particularly in the brewery sequences. (The MPAA’s R rating is for language and “sensual content.”) But struggle as it does, mightily, the ascension balloon never gets off the ground except, perhaps, for shower-stall opera singers who may love Renzo as one of their own.

‘Perfectly Normal’

Robbie Coltrane: Alonzo Turner

Michael Riley: Renzo Parachi

Deborah Duchene: Denise

Eugene Lipinski: Hopeless

Kenneth Welsh: Charlie Glesby

Jack Nichols: Duane Bickle

A Four Seasons Entertainment Inc. release. Producer Michael Burns. Director Yves Simoneau. Screenplay Eugene Lipinski, Paul Quarrington from a story by Rafe S.Engle. Editor Ronald Sanders. Camera Alain Dostie. Production design Anne Pritchard. Music Richard Gregoire. Costumes Margaret M. Mohr. Sound Doug Ganton. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (language and sensual content).