'Tribe' fails

Unfocused film starring Richard Dreyfuss plays to wrong audience

MOVIE REVIEW

By Maria Vega, On-line Forty-Niner

March 3,1998

"Krippendorf's Tribe" is a comedy that unsuccessfully attempts to appeal to both adults and children.

The movie stars Richard Dreyfuss as Professor Krippendorf, an anthropologist, and Jenna Elfman as Veronica Micelli, his energetic and aggressive colleague.

Krippendorf is a recent widower with three children. After he misspends a $100,000 research grant on them, he impulsively claims to have found an undiscovered tribe in New Guinea. However, he has to present proof of his unbelievable find.

The fear of imprisonment for misusing the grant money prompts him to create a film of this mythical clan, starring his children.

Micelli, a young and ambitious anthropologist, uses her looks on Krippendorf to mask her true intentions of receiving her own grant. She unknowingly gets wrapped up in Krippendorf's web of lies and becomes his accomplice.

Dreyfuss is perfectly cast in the role of anthropologist and family man. The way his character gets into a sticky situation, and lies his way through it, is funny.

When faced with having to give a lecture about the tribe with one day's notice, he haphazardly makes it up as he goes along.

The story is fairly interesting. The method in which Krippendorf stages the fake documentation of the tribe is intriguing and saves the film from being a complete disaster. It is, of course, another elaborate lie, staged in his backyard with his children's help.

The unraveling of lies is also funny, but ends on a disappointing note.

The movie does have its moments, but the supposed funny scenes are only somewhat amusing. Much of the humor is geared toward adults, such as the constant flow of circumcision and genital jokes. Even though it's done in a subtle way, the risqué material spoils a rather lighthearted story.

Elfman isn't very credible as Veronica. She tries to include moments of ditzy humor with her aggressive character, which does not work. It seems she is in the movie to prance around in skimpy underwear.

Lily Tomlin plays Ruth Allen, Krippendorf's colleague, who tries to discredit him. Her character is played down some, which is a mistake. Tomlin should have given her a comic edge and thus would have created a more prominent character. Instead, Allen is uninteresting, bitter and not funny at all.

"Krippendorf's Tribe" turns out to be a weak comedy. It would have been stronger had it remained a children's film rather than trying to entertain grown-ups.