The cast for Charlie Day’s feature directorial debut, Fool’s Paradise, is so incredible you immediately feel that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble film. Aside from Day starring in his picture, we’ve got the talents of Ken Jeong, Ray Liotta (in one of his final performances), Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Steve Coulter, Jason Bateman, Edie Falco, Dean Norris, Glenn Howerton (fresh off an Oscar-worthy performance in Matt Johnson’s Blackberry), Common, Jillian Bell, and John Malkovich.

Look at this. You couldn’t assemble a more diverse ensemble of comedic talents than this. Each actor has previously shown their comedic skills in previous film and television works and should be more than up for the task of starring in a movie where Day pays tribute to his burlesque icons Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as he plays Latte Pronto, a “man of few words” who gets thwarted in plenty of insane situations after landing the starring role in a Billy the Kid movie.

And yet, all of their talents are wasted. Every single one. Sure, there are some funny moments here and there, but they seldom happen that you’re going to wonder exactly why did all of these actors sign up for something as bland and as unfunny as this? It’s even funnier that this was the end result when you learn that, in 2021, Day reshot parts of the film with Liotta, Beckinsale, Brody, and Jeong after Guillermo del Toro told him to write more material for the movie and scrap its initial title, El Tonto. I’m curious to see if the film’s original cut was vastly different than what we got, but I believe it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

It’s an even bigger shame when you realize how great of a comic Charlie Day is. His timing has always been impeccable, and everyone who has seen a clip of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia absolutely knows this. In Fool’s Paradise, he doesn’t seem as engaged in the material as in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is strange since he has written the script he directs. Day helms his script with the energy of a snail, lethargically swerving Pronto from one place to the next without any sense of momentum that would engage an audience member in wanting to see what hijinks his character will go next impatiently.

Fool’s Paradise [credit: Lionsgate]

That’s the thing with Chaplin and Keaton: they usually ended up in situations they didn’t want to be a part of but stupidly went along for the ride and continuously used their bodies to adapt themselves to the material. When you watch a film like Modern Times or The Cameraman, you can’t wait to see what Chaplin and Keaton will go through next because you don’t know what will happen and what they will be stuck in. And you can’t wait to see how their bodies react to what’s happening around them. The best physical comics use every facet of their body to engage the viewers in the spectacle and surprisingly adapt to everything in their environments. 

As gifted as a physical comic Day is, he barely uses his body to react to any situation. He lightly smirks or does what he’s told but doesn’t necessarily use a great expressive range that would make a film like this shine. Very few physical comedies nowadays, barring the Jackass films, understand that they’re primarily about their protagonists’ bodily contortions and quick thinking. The point of Fool’s Paradise is that Latte Pronto is never allowed to think. This happens whether he’s with his “publicist” (Jeong) or wife (Beckinsale) he seemingly marries without saying a word. And the bit wears itself out rather quickly and gets tired by the ten-minute mark of a 97-minute-long film. When you see a Chaplin or Keaton film, you’ll immediately recognize that they never overstay a joke’s welcome and always find new ways to innovate and surprise audiences (the entirety of Modern Times is based around Chaplin’s refusal of wanting to make a sound film, until we get to the point where he has to sing…). 

Fool’s Paradise never innovates in that regard and instead finds ways to make the comedy dumber and unfunnier as it goes along. Thankfully, a few cameos are enjoyable to watch, particularly the late Ray Liotta, who seems to have the most fun playing an overzealous producer trying to save an unmitigated on-set disaster with a method actor and a director (Coulter, also excellent in a small role) who couldn’t give two shits about what he’s making. Falco is also quite funny as Latte’s manager, and Glenn Howerton’s appearance surprised me, and he has one of the funniest scenes in the movie. 

But it isn’t enough to save Fool’s Paradise, an otherwise dull and unengaging comedy that seems to miss the point of every legendary physical comedy. I’m not saying that Day is the next Chaplin or Keaton, but he’s got the chops to follow in their footsteps and has already proven himself to be one of the funniest comedians alive. It’s a shame that his directorial debut had to be so unimaginative and lacking the physicality of a physical comedy. If you can’t nail that, forget the rest.