Joe Keery plays a seeming dupe in a crime movie that plays dumb, then tries to play smart, but only becomes dumber.
The protagonist of “Marmalade” is “dumber than a box of crayons,” a police chief declares at one point in the movie. That may be true — but it’s no reason to treat viewers that way.
Written and directed by Keir O’Donnell, “Marmalade” never actually locates any humor in the main character, Baron (Joe Keery), who speaks with an exaggerated Southern twang and uses malapropisms like “inseparadable.” On some level, O’Donnell seems to recognize that he has gambled on an unfunny premise, and so what begins as a hicksploitation comedy tries to save face by recasting itself as a twisty thriller. In essence, “Marmalade” pretends to be more dunderheaded than it is, then acts as if it’s been smart all along, in a shift that takes it from insulting to incoherent.
Broadly speaking, “Marmalade” consists of the newly imprisoned Baron explaining to his cellmate, Otis (Aldis Hodge), how he met and fell for a strawberry blonde named Marmalade (Camila Morrone) who sweet-talked him into helping her rob a bank. (He only wanted to buy medicine for his ailing mother, of course.) If Otis, who claims to have experience with prison escapes, helps Baron break out, the bank loot — $250,000 — awaits him. All Baron wants is Marmalade.
Does Baron’s naïveté mean he is on the list of cinematic dimwits who have never seen a movie with a femme fatale? O’Donnell surely has. There is also a particular, much-imitated crime movie from the 1990s whose conceit “Marmalade” draws on shamelessly. O’Donnell may not owe royalties, but he might consider finding a way to repay the audience for its time.
Marmalade
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
