Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009

'The Hammer' a surprising hit from Carolla

By Ed Robertson, special to the Herald

For us showbiz types, the biggest threat we face is getting typecast. These days I can't break into Gerard Butler's office to steal a script without getting typed as the walking slab of brawn who gets all the exercise I need just throwing hysterical chicks away from me.

I feel like Adam Carolla's gotten typed on the other end of the spectrum. If you know him from Crank Yankers or The Man Show, or as the guy who used to fart into the mike on Loveline (good times), you probably wouldn't think he's capable of brushing his teeth without attacking that stranger in the mirror, let alone carrying the lead in a surprisingly good romantic comedy like 2007's The Hammer.

Fired from his construction job and dumped by his girlfriend, Carolla's future is looking dim until he's noticed sparring at the gym by Olympic boxing trainer Tom Quinn. Carolla thinks it's a last shot to dredge up his buried dreams, but Quinn's using him as nothing more than a free training partner for his real talent, up-and-coming fighter Harold House Moore.

Oh, and meanwhile Carolla's wooing boxing student Heather Juergensen, which is where the romance comes in. With its attention so split between love and mashing people's faces in, you'd think The Hammer would collapse like a drunk spider, but director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld never lets one thread feel like an afterthought to the other.

Herman-Wurmfeld's got a good eye for editing, too, and editing is to comedy what having dinner ready on time is to me not smacking my girlfriend. Meanwhile, Carolla's answer to the zany dumbness of modern rom-coms is to go personal and low-key, grounding his observational rants in blue-collar technical humor (he's actually been both a carpenter and a boxer) and constant but good-natured jabs at absolutely everything.

That's all good in its own right, but what's even better is that it clears the way for some real poignancy throughout the third act, when Carolla pushes on despite the hopelessness of his age and place.

Funny yet believable, sweet without ever pushing too hard, it's the near-mythical romantic comedy that seems to have found equal appeal to men and women. Carolla's been pigeonholed as something of an ignorant sidekick, but The Hammer proves that if you give him a shot, he will deliver.