Speaks to our Hearts!
This is a long way from Shakespearean comedy -- certainly no Puck flies around in it--but it has all the makings of it. The formula is there! People are swindled out of money by a greedy guy who does not even need it--can this really be Alan Alda? And then Stiller and Murphy go to work with some other misfits to pull off the impossible heist by swindling the swindler, catching him at his own game. The slapstick humor and impossible events all boil down to one dialogue between Alda and Stiller. First, Alda's line cuts to the quick:
Arthur Shaw: You people are working stiffs,
clock-punchers. Easily replaced.
But Stiller comes right back with the magic spell of comedy:
Josh Kovacs: I don't care what it takes. I will find
a way to make it right.
And with those words, he tells Alda that he has found his Ledger that proves everything Alda has done wrong. Opps! Alda has stepped in it and he knows it. So he does the only thing he knows how to do--he tries to buy them off. But comedy roars back to flip the swindler's world:
Josh Kovacs: Devro,
will you please remind Mr. Shaw?
Rick Malloy: [to Shaw] I'm very
sorry, Mr. Shaw, but we don't accept tips at the tower.
Comedy is the force for Good in the world. In some ways, it may answer the single biggest question o f our century--"Why do bad things happen with a God who is good?" The answer is the voice and action of comedy. When we can laugh, we let go and pray God takes hold.
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