MOVIE REVIEW : INSUFFICIENT FUN IN ‘CHECK IN MAIL’

Don’t let its lousy title fool you. “The Check Is in the Mail” (citywide) is simply forgettable, not simply awful. Still, it’s bad enough to make you wonder whether any film investors actually saw a script before bankrolling this dismal low-budget bore.

The best thing that can be said about the picture is that it gives likeable character actor Brian Dennehy a rare opportunity to handle a starring role.

Dennehy plays Richard Jackson, an amiable local druggist whose home life has been reduced to a series of round-table debates over who ran up the biggest portion of last month’s phone bill. To make matters worse, his new car is a lemon, the family vacation to Hawaii a disaster and Jackson’s most sociable visitor seems to be a swarthy, gangland thug who’s eager to clear up a hefty gambling debt.

Seething with frustration, Jackson loses his grip and launches a bizarre consumer revolt, transforming his tidy suburban home into a rural eyesore. Out go the credit cards and TV sets; in come the chickens and goats, with a backyard well replacing the ice box and a newspaper standing in for toilet paper.

It’s an appealing daydream, but writer-producer Robert Kaufman has crowded the movie with so much low-brow, Las Vegas humor that we don’t ever find ourselves identifying with this crackpot fantasy. Most of the gags would be right at home at a Friars Club Roast (especially the scenes with offensive racial stereotypes), the satire is toothless and director Joan Darling handles most of the comic set-ups with all the flair of someone auditioning for a shot at directing “The Joker’s Wild.” Meanwhile, the movie’s music is so overbearingly jaunty that you’d think Merv Griffin’s studio band handled the score.

Thankfully, there are some nice performances, especially by Anne Archer as Jackson’s harried wife and the irrepressible Dick Shawn as a daffy neighbor who serves sushi at his daughter’s 16th birthday party, saying it’s about time the kids had some “adult food.” Dennehy is a delight, especially when dealing with Krishna fanatics or trying to spice up his love life with his wife. But all the qualities that make Dennehy such a fine actor, especially his underlying tenderness and grace, are the human touches woefully missing from this shrill comedy that has about as much sweetness as a bowl of sauerkraut.

‘THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL’

An Ascot Entertainment Group release. Producers Robert Kaufman & Robert Krause. Director Joan Darling. Writer Kaufman. Camera Jan Kiesser. Music David Frank. With Brian Dennehy, Anne Archer, Hallie Todd, Chris Hebert, Michael Bowen, Dick Shawn and Nita Talbot.

Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (Under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian.)