Main Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson, Emil Wolk, Geraldine James
Release Year: 1989
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) is an actor who spends his nights on-stage in London's West End as a comedic punching bag for obnoxiously self-centered comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson). He gets hit in the head with hammers, he trips, and he stands by dumbly as Anderson gets all the laughs. His home life is little different. His roommate, Carmen (Geraldine James), is a nymphomaniac, so he's always surprised by naked men parading through the kitchen in the morning. A chance meeting with lovely nurse Kate Lemon (Emma Thompson) and a tryout for the lead in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical based on The Elephant Man (called, not surprisingly, "Elephant!") jolt Dexter from his torpor. Not that it makes him much less of a loser, which is the quality the show's producers are looking for. "You're a victim," they tell him. His attempts to seduce Kate are equally jarring. She asks him if he is a big believer in having sex on the first date. "Why, no," he tells her, trying to impress her with his sensitivity. Too bad, she replies -- she doesn't believe in getting serious with someone if they're sexually incompatible. Romance and showbiz go on, with the show a hit, though Dexter's romance hits a temporary snag: his backstage romance with a co-star (Kim Thomson) gets found out. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Review
Is there anything that Jeff Goldblum can't do? Well, there's one: sing. One of the funniest sequences in movies of the 1990s has to be The Tall Guy's devastating parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. This one is based on The Elephant Man and it's called "Elephant!" Playing an American actor who gets the lead in this bizarre London musical, Goldblum's off-key warbling is just one of the The Tall Guy's comic highlights. Slapstick, sight gags, one-liners -- this movie has just about every comic device known to man, and makes most of them work, but it's Goldblum's deadpan presence that holds it all together. It's a light, cheerful, and literate comedy. Except for a silly theme song ("It Must Be Love" by Madness), The Tall Guy hits just about everything it aims at. It has an equally dexterous performance from Emma Thompson as Goldblum's girlfriend. Thompson creates a character stripped of all conventions: she is pure English eccentric. Rowan Atkinson gives good sneer as Goldblum's egocentric boss, but the movie's Webber parody is its best bit. It's about time someone mocked his smarmy hit-machine formula, but even if you like Webber, you'll enjoy a night with The Tall Guy. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Anna Massey - Mary; Susan Field - Dr. Freud; Hugh Thomas - Dr. Karabekian; Timothy Barlow - Mr. Morrow; Simon Bell - "After Dark" Presenter; Susan Beresford - Woman Police Constable; Fred Bryant - Dying Old Man; Joolia Cappelman - Costume Designer; Angus Deayton - Actor in Agent's Office; Robin Driscoll - Actor in Agent's Office; Kate Duchene - Old Girl Friend; Sarah-Jane Fenton - Actress at Awards Show; Piers Fletcher - Himself; Tony Forsyth - Berkoff Actor; Piers Hamilton - Himself; Harold Innocent - Timothy; Jason Isaacs - Doctor; Francis Johnson - Male Nurse; Joanna Kanska - Tamara; Harriet Keevil - Mary's Secretary; Charles Lamb - Old Man in Wheelchair; Ian Lindsay - TV Director; Kate Lonergan - Stage Manager/Rubberface; Stephen Marchant - Berkoff Actor; Angela Meredith - Old Girl Friend; Declan Mulholland - Rubberface Doorman; Toby Philpott - "Elephant" Chorus; Martin Sadler - Doctor; Kim Thomson - Cheryl; John Waldon - Company Stage Manager; Anthony Woodruff - Elephant Doorman; Charles Augins - Choreographer; Peter Brewis - Freddy; John Inman - Special Guest Appearance; Bob Appleby - "Elephant" Chorus; Stacey Haynes - "Elephant" Chorus; Bruce Leader - "Elephant" Chorus; Melvyn Bragg - Special Guest Appearance; Jan Lloyd - 'Elephant' Chorus; Sheila Trezise; Neil Hamilton - Naked George; Peter Kelly - Gavin; Michael Fitzgerald - Vacuum Cleaner Man; Thomas Lockyer - Michael
Credit
Andrew Rothschild - Art Director, Charles Augins - Choreography, Denise Simmons - Costume Designer, Mel Smith - Director, Dan Rae - Editor, Peter Brewis - Composer (Music Score), Carole King - Songwriter, Neil Sedaka - Songwriter, Howard Greenfield - Songwriter, Morag Ross - Makeup, Daniel Parker - Makeup, Grant Hicks - Production Designer, Adrian Biddle - Cinematographer, Tim Bevan - Producer, Paul Webster - Producer, Jim Dowdall - Stunts, Richard Curtis - Screenwriter
The protagonist and narrator is Dexter King (Goldblum), an American actor working in London and living platonically in Camden Town with his "educated, charming...nymphomaniac" landlady (played by Geraldine James). He's just finished his sixth year playing "The Tall Guy", a straight man in a two-man, long-running comedy revue starring (and dominated by) Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson, playing a role based on himself).[3]
Chronic hay fever prompts him to see a doctor, where he meets and falls quickly in love with Kate (played by Emma Thompson), who works there as a nurse.
Soon after meeting Kate, Dexter is fired by Ron. After being rejected for a role in a new Steven Berkoff play for "lacking anger", Dexter wins the title role in a new Royal Shakespeare Companymusical based on The Elephant Man. It's a "nasty send-up of Andrew Lloyd Webber"[1] called Elephant! which features a song called “He’s Packing His Trunk” and a finale which ends with the lyric "Somewhere up in heaven there's an angel with big ears!"
During rehearsal, Dexter succumbs to the advances of a married co-star (played by Kim Thomson). On the new musical's opening night, Kate puts together evidence of the affair from a few subtle clues, and leaves Dexter without further ado.
After seeing a scene in a televised award show that suggests Ron is now dating Kate, Dexter impulsively gives up his role in Elephant! just before the curtain rises, with plans to make an impassioned plea to Kate to take him back. With Ron's involuntary help (Dexter ties him up in his dressing room and steals his car), Dexter presents his case to Kate in a busy hospital ward. Kate agrees to give him another chance.
Critical reception
Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B-", describing it as "mildly charming and mostly too broad" and accusing it of overplaying "Dexter's dorkiness in the same way it overplays the big sex scene, the romantic montage, the breakup scene…"[4]
Caryn James of The New York Times wrote "even when its bright theatrical satire gives way to men dressed as nuns dancing in wimples and red sequined shorts, this modest comedy is always wickedly endearing, thanks to the off-kilter characters played by Mr. Goldblum and Emma Thompson as the unlikely woman of his dreams."[5]
In a 2003 mid-career retrospective about Richard Curtis, The Guardian described the film as being "patronised in one sense by critics while not patronised in the other by audiences."[1]. It also identified several tropes from The Tall Guy that would be utilized in his subsequent romantic comedies, (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually):[1]
romantic lightning strikes that "Curtis seems to believe in as much as any figure in history apart from Cupid";
the "willingness to sacrifice realism to a gag" (e.g. turning cartwheels in front of a giant moon to show that Dexter is in love);
the "wacky but wise" flatmate;
the use of eccentric obscenities (e.g. Ron's question "What in the name of Judas Iscariot's bumboy is going on?").
There are significant differences between the American release of the film and the original version, including cut or replaced scenes and overdubbing of British slang and popular culture references. For example, in the scene featuring John Inman reading the nominees for the theatre awards, three American actors are named in addition to Ron Anderson, rather than the British actors named in the original.[citation needed]
As of March 2007, the original version has not been released on DVD or VHS in the United States.
