Be Kind Rewind

“Our version is better!”

“Our version is only twenty minutes!”

Fans of Michel Gondry will attest to the French director’s unique artistic vision and the accompanying sense of smarmy humor that vivifies this exchange from his fourth feature film, “Be Kind Rewind.” Its main characters Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) are arguing over the marketability of their shorter, home-made interpretation of “Rush Hour 2.” The implication is clear: Gondry doesn’t think much of Brett Ratner’s oeuvre. But what does he think of the people who watch his own films? Does he consider himself above the industry that he so clearly considers pedestrian despite his participation in the studio system? What does Gondry think makes a movie worth watching?

As ambitious as these questions may be, the director isn’t terribly concerned with answering them in “Rewind.” Instead, Gondry­—who also wrote the film—takes the loosely autobiographical plotline as an opportunity to run wild with the refined amateurism that resulted in the high points of his last film, 2006’s “The Science of Sleep.”

The victim of an electrical accident, Mike’s sudden magnetism promptly erases the content of every video cassette in his best friend Mos Def’s struggling neighborhood video store. In a race against time and good economic sense, Black and Def begin introducing customers to their own low-budget versions of classic movies that the pair shoot in Black’s junkyard.

Gondry often brings his whimsical, stylish approach to surreal story arcs. It’s his charming penchant for intensive theater tech that makes “Be Kind Rewind” an aesthetic success. Individual triumphs of innovation and elbow grease, the bootleg movies are the film’s highlights, sugarcoated with all of Gondry’s quirky techniques. Ghosts wield flashlights and wear saran-wrap, while large cheese pizzas stand in for blood and brain matter in makeshift gangster flicks. Classics like “King Kong,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Driving Miss Daisy” all get their own indie treatments, to the delight of those within and without the film. Gondry turns the audience into children again, as they giddily await each brilliant novelty.

Comedic foil Black makes for a great pied piper. He brings a manic, absurd energy to his character that doesn’t ask viewers to suspend their disbelief so much as thrash them into submission. Exuberance and relentlessness on his part make up for Mos Def’s hopelessly awkward dialogue: he mumbles, murmurs, and slurs his words so frequently that its difficult at times to believe he’s a successful and talented rapper.

While Mos Def’s shortcomings in Black’s shadow are understandable, “Be Kind Rewind” stumbles from start to finish. Despite showcasing some of Gondry’s finest visual work, the film as a whole lacks an earnestness, a naïveté, that came so effortlessly in his previous works. As silly and loveable as they may be, the characters’ relationships with one another only act as a pasteboard to the service of the plot, which itself acts as an excuse to watch Gondry show off his do-it-yourself wizardry.

Then there’s the dialogue. With 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Gondry had assistance from “Adaptation” and “Being John Malkovitch” scribe Charlie Kaufman. “The Science of Sleep” was written in multiple languages, and the resulting disjointed character exchange only complemented the overall blurred boundaries of reality. Here, Gondry’s attempts at natural American speech are rough around the edges, and there are more than a handful of back-and-forths that stray wildly from the lexicon of Passaic, N.J., where the movie is set.

The biggest flaw in a film like this isn’t where it goes but where it fails to go. The script makes several half-hearted attempts at social commentary, from exploring the dynamics of a racially mixed neighborhood to the validity of copyright law. These stabs at meaning never quite hit their target, and while the film’s lack of depth may be easy to ignore during one of Black’s guffaw-moments, it’s impossible to totally forget. The subject matter itself is a license for Gondry to criticize a culture saturated by crappy movies, but because it’s either not brave enough or just doesn’t care, “Be Kind Rewind” dissolves into chuckles.

With “Be Kind Rewind,” Gondry’s intentions are clear. Already well established as a cult director, this seems to be his attempt to set sail for deeper, more commercial waters with a box-office draw like Black in his pocket. Whether trading the strength of a work with thematic and stylistic unity for the satisfaction of a blockbuster may pay off, it’s difficult to relish a Gondry film from Gondry that fails to challenge its viewers.

—Reviewer Ryan J. Meehan can be reached at rmeehan@fas.harvard.edu.