The Big White could've worked, but it contains too many misfires. Robin Williams plays a troubled man named Paul who discovers a dead body. He figures this is his chance to turn lemons into lemonade when he passes the body as that of his long-absent jerk of a brother in an attempt to cash a life-insurance policy. Easier said than done.
Is it too much to ask from a black comedy to have likable characters or the opposite, people so despicable you want to follow them just to see how life will punish them? Everyone here is either overwritten to make them "quirky", a petty criminal more pathetic than exciting to see, or flat-out annoying. The worst offender is easily Paul’s wife, Margaret (Holly Hunter). Apparently, the woman has Tourette Syndrome, but no one in the film is able to recognize this. A character who yammers on and on without making any sense or ever being funny AND serves as the catalyst for every horrible thing that all of the other characters have to live through? Sounds like someone I’d like to run over with a steamroller, not hope to see safe and happy at the end of the movie.
Everyone else erodes your nerves and by the end, you'll be happy to be done with the movie, and them. Paul is the kind of pathetic criminal who ranks so high on the loser scale, you can't get behind. His nemesis at the insurance agency (Giovanni Ribisi as Ted) isn’t worthy of your admiration - being a creepy stalker - so he's no fun either. They stood the best chance of turning the film around and fail, leaving us to hope someone else will step up the plate but the side characters are either blander versions of bumbling criminals you’ve seen in other films or generic foes.
I see where The Big White went wrong. I can visualize the studio pitch: a blend of dark and screwball comedy that's populated with all kinds of wacky characters that make the setting feel like every weirdo you've ever met living together in a frozen wasteland. Between that pitch and this movie, the writer must’ve gotten mauled by a bear or something because it’s a mess. The characters are too dumb and the laughs never come.
This is the kind of movie you rent because the cast looks awesome and the blurb on the back cover sells you on it. You watch it, you end up disappointed and you completely forget about it... until like 4 years later when you look up Robin William’s filmography and realize you’ve seen all his movies, except for that one whose title sounds vaguely familiar: The Big White. You watch it again. By then, either you've purged your brain of all memories of this film and the cycle repeats itself, or the minutes you have spent watching the film begging for more than 2 or 3 laughs finally springs back to the forefront of your mind and you turn it off.
The only thing preventing me from giving this movie a lower rating is the feelings of indifference I have. It’s bad, but not memorably bad. What’s the point in getting upset over it? The Big White is unmemorable, unfunny, and often annoying.
