Sardonic and sweet, this franchise continues to amuse.
Despicable Me 3
Grade: B-
Directors: Kyle Balda (Minions), et al.
Screenplay: Ken Daurio (The Secret Life of Pets), et al.
Cast: Steve Carell (Café Society), Kristen Wiig (The Martian)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hr 30 min
by John DeSando
“Face it, Gru. Villainy is in your blood!” Dru (Steve Carell)
As it goes in Despicable Me 3, so it went in 1 and 2: Our favorite villain, Gru, turned good guy and now is tempted by his charming, successful long-lost brother, Dru (Carell), to return to one more crime because it’s in his blood. With the sure-footed direction of Kyle Balda, several seasoned writers, and soft-core family values, the franchise is healthy, still giving laughs, and revealing even broader social commentary than ever.
Besides the laughs from the minions, whose incomprehensible language is funny enough, Gru’s kids and wife, Lucy (Kristen Wiig), provide their humorous sideshows. From Lucy trying to be a good mom while her former macho agent persona tries regularly to kick in, to Agnes (Nev Scharrell) searching for a unicorn that turns out to be a fluffy goat, the film uses slapstick and whimsy to reveal the contradictions in nature and the mixed success of most humans.
No better is this irony of living exemplified than in the brothers. Gru fights his attraction to the dark side, and Dru is unfazed by the presence of good or evil, both of which find a home in his heart and make him much less a candidate for a heart attack than his uptight brother. Their bit about exchanging identities is not just lamentably flat; it’s almost inscrutable. See Parent Trap for a better rendering of this motif, or Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night to see how identity switch can be done effectively.
The downside of this predictable brotherly union is the minions have less of a role—a mistake when you consider they are a certifiable home run at any time. It may be time for them to go on sabbatical.
Beyond these admittedly weighty subjects beats the heart of those minions, whose dance in prison stripes to the Pirates of Penzance’s “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” brings down the house and reminds of Busby Berkeley’s visual splendor in the 1930’s. The look of the innocent but mischievous minions is constantly a rewarding pleasure of the Despicable franchise.
Shrek, for instance, ran its course. I hope Despicable’s Gru lives to see another film as a James Bond wannabee, not a milquetoast husband, or it’s toast for this delightfully witty and sardonic franchise.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
