What Planet Are You From? (2000)

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Gary Shandling co-writes, co-produces, and stars in a comedy that plays like a pilot for a pay channel series.

Shandling is Harold, an alien on a planet of men run by Graydon (Ben Kingsley). The men want conquer Earth, and send Harold down to impregnate a woman, and eventually take over the planet with alien seed. Harold's training was not adequate, and his first attempts at getting any woman he meets into bed are hilarious. Harold works at a bank with Perry (Greg Kinnear), who is always on the prowl when he is not in the vault with the office manager. Perry takes Harold to Alcoholics Anonymous to pick up chicks, and Harold notices Susan (Annette Bening), a recovering alcoholic who made some bad decisions in her life and is looking to for a complete change. She appreciates Harold's honesty, eventually marries him, and they start trying to have a baby right away. Roland (John Goodman) is an FAA inspector who is investigating mysterious turbulence and lights on assorted Arizona flights. Each time, one of the passengers has been Harold. Harold is supposed to father a child, but he finds himself falling in love with Susan, given his limited understanding of emotions. Harold becomes overly involved in his assignment on Earth. He tries to bed back-stabbing Perry's wife Helen (a seriously wasted Linda Fiorentino). Perry gets a promotion after passing off Harold's work as his own, Roland is closing in on him quickly, and Susan finally conceives.

Mike Nichols directs a big name cast in a sitcom-level script, with four credited screenwriters. There is enough nudity and language to get this on any pay cable channel, but if you replaced Shandling and Bening with a cast twenty years younger, you quickly realize how pedestrian and lowbrow the humor here is. Bening scores some laughs as the worrying Susan, Shandling is funny here and there, but everyone puts more acting effort into the film than the script demands. The film nosedives into maudlin territory as Harold tries to return to his home planet. The cast's intensity is all wrong. Nichols' direction is fine, the man pretty much reinvented comedy direction with "The Graduate" but the script screams for a director with a lighter touch.

"What Planet Are You From?" has the talent in front of and behind the camera, just not in the screenplay. It scores some laughs but eventually this misses its satirical possibilities.

Stats:
(2000) 105 min. (* * *) out of five stars
-Directed by Mike Nichols
-Screenplay by Gary Shandling & Michael Leeson and Ed Solomon and Peter Tolan, Story by Gary Shandling & Michael Leeson
-Cast: Gary Shandling, Annette Bening, Ben Kingsley, Linda Fiorentino, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear, Judy Greer, Richard Jenkins, Camryn Manheim, Jane Lynch, Nora Dunn, Danny Zorn, Harmony Smith
(R)