Will Ferrell's second face

By Steven Zeitchik

Will Ferrell tried serious acting a few years ago in a Marc Foster movie called "Stranger than Fiction" that you may or may not remember between blinks during the fall of '06.

A Best Picture candidate it was not -- but it was interesting enough to make you wonder when and how Ferrell might try it again. Like other actors who've spent years honing a certain character and tone, Ferrell didn't try to reinvent himself with an entirely new mode of being; he simply channeled the talents he uses in comedy in a different direction. In a way it was similar to Adam Sandler's performance in P.T. Anderson's "Punch Drunk Love." Instead of vacating the manchild act that has made him such a broad box-office star, Sandler turned overgrown adolescence -- and the uncontrollable urges that come with it -- into a dramatic persona.

Ferrell appears to be dipping a toe into more ambitious waters again with a topical comedy called "2-Face." The project has been sitting at Sony for years with little movement, but the actor -- perhaps leery of being typecast or simply running out of sports and/or 70's cliches to send up -- is apparently very interested...so interested one insider says Ferrell is looking to make it soon after the new year. Sources say there's already a director attached -- the reliable comic hand Jay Roach -- but producers are going out to a handful of new directors to jumpstart the movie what with Roach busy on new installments of Austin Powers, Meet the Fockers, et al.

The logline, about a man with the dual personalities of a racist and a bleeding-heart liberal, makes the movie sound sufficiently high-concept to be only slightly above a vintage Farrelly Bros pic. Except there's one difference: this script is written by Vince Gilligan, the always surprising creator who has a list of credits both impressive and wide-ranging, from "X-Files" to Hancock" to the cult dark-comedy "Home Fries." Seth Rogen he ain't.

There's no way to know whether Ferrell can actually pull off something entirely different whil remaining in a comedic context, especially when studio and other pressures may steer him otherwise. But as he does pratfalls with John C. Reilly at the box-office shortly and generally tries milking more laughs out of fake fros and 70's garishness, it's nice to know that at least he's trying.

Comments

[Mickey Slevin, ModernMoviegoer]

Ferrell can try all he want, but physically he doesn't have what it takes to go serious. He isn't an acting talent, he's a one-note character. Stranger Than Fiction wasn't great (or at least not Ferrell's part), and the other time he tried to be even somewhat serious at all in a movie was Bewitched and I think we all remember that tragedy.