The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy

At long last, Douglas Adams fans can stick out their thumbs for a ride on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
	Starring Martin Freeman, Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Warwick Davis, Bill Nighy, John Malkovich and Alan Rickman
	Based on the book Douglas Adams
	Screenplay by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick
	Directed by Garth Jennings
	Touchstone Pictures
	Opened April 29

By Ian Spelling

ity poor Arthur Dent (Freeman). His house sits right where British authorities intend to put a new highway. He grouses, grumbles and even plops in front of the wrecking crew that's descended on his property. Then his pal Ford Prefect (Def) turns up and implores Arthur to join him at the local pub. Ford drops a bombshell: He's an alien and Earth is about to be destroyed in favor of a hyperspace express route.

By the time Arthur wanders home, it's been leveled and the alien ships hovering overhead signal that Earth's really, truly, Ford-ain't-kidding about to be leveled, too. Seconds before the planet goes ka-boom, Ford beams himself and Arthur into deep space, thus beginning a very strange adventure. They end up on a stolen ship that's home to Zaphod Beeblebrox (Rockwell), aka the president of the galaxy, and his girlfriend, Trillian (Deschanel).

Turns out Trillian and Arthur dated back on Earth, but the eccentric (and two-headed) Zaphod won her over with a futuristic variation of that old pickup line, "Wanna see my cool car?" Also on the ship is Marvin (Davis in costume, Rickman's voice), a brilliant but remarkably morose android. Together, they crisscross the cosmos, seeking the meaning of the universe, dealing with a creepy and New Age-y missionary (Malkovich), encountering an enigmatic planet designer (Nighy) and evading oversized bureaucratic aliens, Vogons, that torture people by spouting bad poetry.

And all the while, Ford and Arthur turn to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—a PDA-like device with amusing graphics and Stephen Fry's voice—for helpful hints about surviving another day.

Not exactly Earth-shattering

OK, full disclosure: I never heard the BBC radio versions of Hitchhiker's Guide, never saw the British TV serial, never read one of the books, and I'd frankly not paid much attention to the cult of Douglas Adams until I poked around Web sites and read obits following his death in 2001. As such, I walked into the big-screen Hitchhiker's Guide entirely open-minded, with no expectations. And I wasn't disappointed.

Bottom line, the film is funny, often laugh-out-loud so, and it's witty and playful and silly as well. But it doesn't quite hang together. It's not so much a story as a series of loosely connected vignettes, and the same can be said of the characters, that they're individually interesting—most of them, anyway—but don't quite gel into a cohesive whole. The extended sequences that work best include Ford and Arthur suffering through the prose of the Vogons, creatures put across not with CGI but with wondrous Jim Henson Creature Shop inventions; a zippy trek through a planet-building factory; and a scene near the end in which Trillian elicits truths from Zaphod and Arthur. A couple of related asides: The romance here, apparently only hinted at in the books, is wisely underplayed and not nearly as sappy as some might fear. And the special effects are, in keeping with the spirit of the piece, at once convincing and low-tech.

It's the random nonsense, however, that generates the big chuckles: A whale contemplates life as it plunges from the sky to its death; dolphins cheekily bid adieu to mankind by performing a ditty called "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"; the ship and its passengers morph occasionally, and thus we glimpse the ship as a flower or Arthur and company as puppets; images of Adams abound, as do tips of the hat to past Hitchhiker's incarnations, so be on the lookout for the original Marvin robot and glimpses of Simon Jones, who played Arthur in the BBC television series.

Performance-wise, Freeman nails the Everyman role; we feel Arthur's pain and also relate to his occasional bursts of pride and heroism as he copes with his new reality. Def is funny and warm, especially in the scene in which he reveals he's an alien, tells of Earth's imminent demise and explains why he befriended Arthur. Deschanel is charming, with bright and aware eyes and a line delivery as distinctive as her voice. She and Freeman share some nice chemistry, but she looks younger than her 25 years and he looks older than his 37, and that may put off some moviegoers. Malkovich licks his chops in his extended cameo, while Davis and Rickman forge a flesh-and-blood character out of Marvin, though some people will surely tire of his incessant droning. Finally, Rockwell overdoes the manic Zaphod to the point that he distracts and detracts from the proceedings. In fairness, my understanding is that Zaphod is relentlessly annoying in Adams' books, meaning Rockwell may just be staying true to the material, but still.

I liked Hitchhiker's Guide more than I expected, and more for its messy, chaotic spirit and energetic, random asides than its story. Fans need not panic, but I wonder if American audiences, despite the presence of Def, Rockwell and Deschanel, will find the film too British and, ironically, almost too true to its source material. —Ian

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