Murphy’s ‘Professor’ Earns a Doctorate in Comedy

Tasteful, subtle and sophisticated are a few of the words that aren’t going to be applied to Eddie Murphy’s version of “The Nutty Professor.” But funny, funny is something else again.

Messy, raucous, crude and undisciplined though this remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis vehicle is, it also creates more laughter (and poignancy) than any Eddie Murphy movie has in quite some time. And the curious thing about the film is that Murphy has in effect gone undercover to do it.

Rather than focusing on just one character, the comedian takes on seven roles, including a white exercise guru modeled after Richard Simmons, a feat that involves considerable amounts of makeup (created by Rick Baker) and foam-rubber latex. The least likable impersonation, ironically enough, is closest to Murphy’s previous on screen roles, while the most appealing acts least of all like the ghost of Eddie past.

That would be Professor Sherman Klump, a brilliant chemist doing groundbreaking DNA research at Wellman University. While Jerry Lewis’ professor was way past nerd, Murphy’s version, more in line with modern times, is burdened by his immense size. With fingers like Dodger dogs and and tiny bow ties to exaggerate his bulk, the 400-pound Klump makes the Pillsbury Doughboy look petite.

That “The Nutty Professor” encourages laughter at Klump’s waddling expense is to be expected. What is not is that Murphy, buried under all that latex, does fairly well at turning the professor into a recognizably human character, avuncular and wistfully accepting of his own obesity.

Klump begins to view his weight differently when Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett), the film’s winsome ingenue, takes a position at the chemistry department. There is close to pathos in the professor’s predicament when he takes Carla to a trendy club, only to have his size mercilessly skewered by insult comedian Reggie Warrington (Dave Chappelle).

Feeling increasingly desperate, Klump, whose research just happens to involve the genes for obesity, decides to experiment on himself. But the glowing potion does more than slim the professor down, it also, in Jekyll and Hyde fashion, changes his personality. In place of kindly Klump we get egotistical and obnoxious Buddy Love, a glib playboy who is almost a parody of Murphy’s previous film incarnations.

Naturally Buddy Love wants to romance Carla as well, a situation that creates considerable confusion and allows him to take a measure of revenge on those who mistreated his rotund alter ego, especially that heartless comic.

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Much funnier than the brash Love are the members of the Klump family, including Sherman’s brother, father, mother and grandmother. Encountered at two family dinners, the Klumps are always at one another’s throats and are all played, thanks to camera and makeup wizardry, by Murphy himself.

Though the setup sounds contrived, these virtuoso scenes manage to transcend gimmickry through Murphy’s gift for character impersonation, as well as his willingness to launch into scatalogical humor whenever possible.

Directed by Tom Shadyac (“Ace Ventura, Pet Detective”) and written by David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein (veteran Murphy scribes) and Shadyac & Steve Oedekerk, “The Nutty Professor” is finally every bit as strange a concoction as the turquoise liquid Klump drinks down.

Simultaneously mocking fat people while insisting that the secret of life is “being happy with yourself,” willing to take a stab at being sweet when it’s not parading an endless stream of gross-out jokes about flatulence and animal droppings, the film’s personality is as deeply split as the gap between Sherman and Buddy. But it’s hard to argue with laughs, and it would be sillier than Jerry Lewis ever was to pretend “The Nutty Professor” doesn’t know how to create them.

* MPAA rating: PG-13 for crude humor and sexual references. Times guidelines: relentless barrage of bathroom humor.

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‘The Nutty Professor’

Eddie Murphy: Sherman Klump/Buddy Love

Jada Pinkett: Carla Purty

James Coburn: Harlan Hartley

Larry Miller: Dean Richmond

Dave Chappelle: Reggie Warrington

John Ales: Jason

A Brian Grazer production, released by Universal Pictures. Director Tom Shadyac. Producers Brian Grazer, Russell Simmons. Executive producers Jerry Lewis, Karen Kehela, Mark Lipsky. Screenplay David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein and Tom Shadyac & Steve Oedekerk, based on the motion picture written by Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmond. Cinematographer Julio Macat. Editor Don Zimmerman. Costumes Ha Nguyen. Music David Newman. Production design William Elliott. Art director Greg Papalia. Set decorator Kathryn Peters. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.