Abel and Gordon would never be cast in American comedies because they don’t have the “attractive” faces that Hollywood seeks and believes that everyone is hankering for. I have great respect for The Fairy because here are Abel and Gordon, just as they are, Abel looking like a meld of Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe in certain moments, and then a cross between Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken, but made for comedy. Gordon looks like a happier Tilda Swinton. These observations are best put to use during the undeniably slow moments when the laughs don’t come right away, as expected, but we’re just waiting for something more to happen while Dom and Fiona dance at certain intervals, or the three men at the beach who watch Dom and Fiona, and find the lost dog of a hotel guest (Philippe Martz), whose staying at the very same hotel Dom works at.
And that brings us to the story, which finds Dom constantly interrupted on his night shift at the hotel, trying to eat a sandwich and watch some television, and then Fiona walks in as one of the interruptions, seeking a room. She claims herself to be a fairy, and grants Dom three wishes. He first wants a scooter, to replace his finicky bicycle, and he gets that, along with free gas for life, which Fiona procures for him at an enormous waterfront tank outside of town. He doesn’t know what he wants his third wish to be, but she tells him to take his time. Then she disappears. It doesn’t take long to find her, at least for us, since she’s been committed to a mental hospital. Who had her committed and why is never answered. She’s just there because logically, we would think that she’s crazy, but she plays it so straight, that, just like the major hit Ted, we believe it, just like we believe that Mark Wahlberg’s childhood friend was a teddy bear that came to life by his wish. In The Fairy, why not? This is the life and landscape of this movie. We’ve got actors who have such great comedic skill, especially in Fiona’s escape from the hospital, abetted by Dom and one of the patients, who don’t make such a big show of it. They do what they do because that’s who they are. It’s what they’ve always known. There’s not one instance of them subtly pointing out everything, saying, “Oh, look how amusing all this is!” When Fiona’s stomach suddenly balloons up in the hospital, an unexpected and what would be a total illogical pregnancy, we just go with it. This is their world and they can do whatever they like with our perceptions. We’ll play along.
But patience is key. Even as some sequences interminably drag, the charm remains. It’s the American thinking in me that makes me want to lament that it doesn’t move as fast as we know comedy, as fast as Charlie Chaplin and other greats work, but I can’t, not when Dom dives into the water at the beach and we’re treated to an underwater dance sequence between him and Fiona that ends with both of them together in a shell that he closes over them. It’s like how in an art museum, you can’t rush what you see. You have to take each painting in with measured consideration, of how color is employed, what the intent seems to be, and most importantly, how it makes you feel. That’s what’s at play in The Fairy, and if you love comedies that take time to make the laughs bigger, this is your new home.
This DVD from Kino Lorber, keeping up its reputation as one of the best sources for foreign films at your leisure, contains only a theatrical trailer and a stills gallery with six stills shot during filming, but revealing nothing about the process, only the scenes. That’s good enough. There are also trailers for Le Quattro Volte and Tuesday, After Christmas.
Between Iceberg, Rumba, and now The Fairy, writer/directors Abel, Gordon and Romy always let three years go by, which means if one can go by that, the trio’s next comedy will be out in 2014. Based on The Fairy alone, curiosity abounds as to what they will come up with next. They’ve got a universe of imagination inside their collective heads.
