Even a funny man like Will Ferrell can stumble in the feature-film format; for evidence, just look at “Kicking &Screaming” and “Anchorman,” neither of which was as good as it should have been.
All is forgiven, because Ferrell’s new one, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” is a solid and at times gloriously funny film. Co-written by Ferrell and director Adam McKay, “Talladega Nights” works as a kind of parody of the inspirational sports movie.
Ferrell plays Ricky Bobby, NASCAR driver and dunderhead. The movie charts his rise and fall, culminating in his profound existential crisis after a crash.
Ferrell can do an earnest fathead like nobody’s business. It is no small trick to play a completely self-centered idiot while keeping the audience on your side, but Ferrell is so innately good-natured he manages to pull it off.
The actor has a bunch of amusing moments, including one of his trademark near-nude freakouts. But the smartest thing Ferrell has done here is surround himself with other funny people, all of whom get a chance to shine.
As Ricky Bobby’s childhood sidekick and devoted racing partner Cal Naughton Jr., the gifted John C. Reilly does something of a variation on his dim-witted “Boogie Nights” character. He has his share of the movie’s loopiest lines, some of which – as we can see in the outtake reel during the end credits – were clearly improvised on the set.
The brilliant British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays a sniffy French Formula One driver, who comes to America to take over NASCAR. (He sips espresso and reads Albert Camus novels while driving.) Baron Cohen, best known here for his Ali G. character – unless he’s known for his hilarious animated lemur in “Madagascar” – has a daft, slowed-down delivery, and the most fractured French accent since Peter Sellers.
Gary Cole plays Ricky Bobby’s unreliable father, Jane Lynch is his loyal mother, and even the kids who play Ricky Bobby’s bratty sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, are good.
The film has the agreeable tactic of coming to a simple scene – like Ricky Bobby saying an extended grace at dinner, or Ricky Bobby and Cal getting tangled up in male-bonding dialogue when Ricky really should start driving in a race – and letting the scene find its own weird rhythms. You get the feeling the actors were allowed to play around and discover where the jokes are.
This gives “Talladega Nights” a freshness that carries it through its conclusion, a NASCAR race that ends with a photo-finish that the Marx Brothers might have approved. It’s a send-up of sports movies, but the preview audience applauded anyway.
The film is so cheerful and silly that it probably earns the applause. Pop the champagne in the winner’s circle, because Will Ferrell has a big hit here.
Will Ferrell stars in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
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