Bill Murray in the right comedy is pure gold. Sadly for fans who were hoping that Barry Levinson’s Rock the Kasbah fit that mold, we hate to be the bearer of bad news.
Murray stars as Richie Lanz, a music manager whose most successful days appear to be behind him. He’s working out of a trashy Van Nuys, California office managing anyone who will cut him a check for “services” that will aide him making them a star. One of his clients, and one who serves as his assistant is Ronnie (Zooey Deschanel) and one night while she is performing (which is basically karaoke!), a stranger strikes up a conversation with Richie and tells him about performing for the USO in Afghanistan and how it pays well and serves our country at the same time.
Next thing you know, Richie and Ronnie are off to Kabul and a war zone. A few things happen that leaves Richie alone, with no money, no passport and no hope of being able to leave this war-torn country. Desperate times calls for desperate measures and one thing leads to another and Lanz hears an angel singing in a cave in a Pashtun village in a remote corner of the country.
Lanz believes that Salima (Leem Lubany) could be one of the greatest voices he’s ever heard. Around that same time, the music manager learns of an American Idol like show called Afghan Star that is sweeping the nation and he believes this young girl could win it. The only problem is the cultural and religious beliefs of that country that would prevent a woman from singing, much less doing so on national television.
There is potential in Rock the Kasbah to be a political comedy that makes its sharp points with humor, like Levinson so effectively did in Wag in the Dog. Unfortunately, this comedy fails to be pointed or funny. Sure, we laugh at Murray and his shenanigans, as we always have and always will. But, that humor is at this point innate in any human that grew up watching the great comedic actor’s work. He’s a funny guy. Period. But this script by Mitch Glazer fails him, which is grossly unfortunate. Glazer penned one of Murray’s great roles in Scrooged and it seems that lightning did not strike twice in this case.
The plot gets muddled in the second and third acts and it appears that Rock the Kasbah doesn’t even try to make a political statement that we all are waiting for. In the same week that Suffragette lands on screens, the Levinson film could have made such a point about the equality of woman and how there is still a struggle in Arab nations that still goes on today. Instead, it just falls completely flat and misses the mark. We see the great strides that Salima is making by appearing on the show, but we never get to see its effect or much less even get the feeling that it is a seismic feminist moment in Afghanistan at all.
What else is a shame is that there is a supporting cast that is pure gold. From Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Scott Caan and Danny McBride, Rock the Kasbah should have been a Murray vehicle that produced laughs, made us think and simultaneously, well, rocked. Instead, it just feels completely off-key.
And as a huge fan of Levinson’s work over the years, we are deeply disappointed that this appears to be another misfire in the director’s later years. The helmer that gave us Rain Man, Diner , Bugsy among other great cinematic moments, The Movie Mensch sure hope he finds his way.
Grade: C-