Review: Auto Focus

Greg Kinnear stars as Bob Crane, who started out as a DJ before moving to television with the initially controversial prison camp TV comedy “Hogan’s Heroes”. The film mostly focuses on his personal life, however. He starts out as a seemingly happy, All-American husband to Rita Wilson and father to their kids, as well as a regular churchgoer. Crane was a different man on the inside, however. He likes the seedy side of life, strip joints and so forth. And then he meets John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) an AV nut who introduces his new best mate Crane (whom Carpenter clearly has sexual leanings towards that Crane absolutely does not reciprocate) to the wonders of videotape technology, and orgies. And yes, the duo end up combining the two as Crane’s life becomes out of control. He is a sex addict, and is eventually unable to keep both sides of his personality separate, horrifying Wilson. In the end, his show gets cancelled, his reputation is in tatters, but hey, John Carpenter’s still around, like an over-eager puppy who just wants to be liked. Maria Bello plays Crane’s former co-star and second wife, who is much more liberated than Wilson. Kurt Fuller plays “Hogan’s Heroes” actor Werner Klemperer. Ron Leibman is Crane’s long-suffering agent, who finds it hard to get his client work when his personal issues start to surface in public.

 

Y’know, it’s a good thing Greg Kinnear can act, because he sure as shit doesn’t look or sound remotely like Bob Crane in this 2002 biopic from director Paul Schrader (writer of “Taxi Driver”, director of the underrated “Blue Collar” and the sleazy “American Gigolo”) and writer Michael Gerbosi, based on a Robert Graysmith book (Graysmith being the infamous reporter played by Jake Gyllenhaal in “Zodiac”, based on his book about his work on the real-life serial killer case). If you can forget that this is the Bob Crane story, the film works in regards to the dichotomy between an All-American TV star and family man, and insatiable, sleazy sex addict. It’s interesting, if unseemly stuff, and Kinnear gets better as the film goes on, once “Hogan’s Heroes” has become a distant memory. As a sleaze trying to keep up appearances, he’s pretty damn good. It’s not Kinnear’s fault he’s not much like Bob Crane (he sounds a bit like Casey Kasem, though), it’s the idiot who cast him. If Kinnear is Bob Crane, then I’m Usain Bolt- I’m white and a paraplegic, so believe me, I am not Usain Bolt.

 

The best performance in the film, and the main reason to see the film, would be Willem Dafoe as John ‘Not the Halloween Guy’ Carpenter. This guy seems more like a drug dealer than anything, but with pornography as the drug, and Crane as the junkie. The brown contacts don’t quite convince, but Dafoe is so slimy you feel like having 20 showers afterwards. He also has the greatest watch I’ve ever seen. I want one. Dafoe’s a frustrating actor, he’s got genuine talent, presence and power...on occasion. But this, “Platoon” and “Shadow of the Vampire” are such occasions. Kinnear’s not the only hopeless case of miscasting here. The guy playing future “Family Feud” host (and “Running Man” villain) Richard Dawson is pretty cut-rate, but more importantly, Kurt Fuller comes across as the most Jewish sounding Nazi character of all-time. Cast as Col. Klink actor Werner Klemperer, Fuller hasn’t got a hope because everyone can do a Col. Klink impersonation, and we’re all better at it than Fuller. Much better. Dude’s not even close, made worse by the fact that Willem Dafoe does an infinitely better Klink impersonation himself at one point in the film (though he obviously doesn’t look like him). Much better are Ron Leibman and especially Maria Bello as Crane’s long-suffering agent and rather accommodating second wife, respectively. Long-serving character actor Joe Grifasi is perfectly cast in the small role of a strip joint emcee.

 

The film doesn’t really work as ‘Hollywood’s dirty little secret’ because Greg Kinnear isn’t anything like Bob Crane, but the film nonetheless has merits as one man’s inability to keep his public image, family life, and sex addiction all separate. I must say, though that for a once controversial film, it has already dated a bit on that front. Lots of nudity, but otherwise pretty tame. It ultimately becomes a very sad cautionary tale as Crane seems to want to get his life back on track, but his fate was sealed the day he hooked up with creepy, and clearly needy Carpenter. It’s quite shocking to see just how far this guy falls as he becomes more recklessly indiscreet about his off-screen peccadilloes. Kinnear is tragically miscast, but tries damn hard to stop you from noticing, and Schrader is definitely the right guy to film this sleazy material. 

 

Rating: B-