The opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite displays the names of the cast and crew on food items with backdrops of horrible shag carpeting and overpowering wallpaper. I’m not quite sure why but seeing the garish oranges, blues, and greens triggered memories of my childhood. My childhood may not have been as painfully awkward as the title character’s but I could certainly relate to his “I really don’t give a crap” attitude.
Napoleon Dynamite centers around the adventures of Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a nerdy kid who lives with his grandmother and brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) in Preston, Idaho. When Grandma is injured in an ATV accident, Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) arrives to take care of the two brothers.
All of Napoleon Dynamite‘s characters are strangely out-of-sync with reality. Napoleon spends his time drawing fantasy creatures, fantasizing about being a ninja, and generally being unkempt. Kip spends his time online in chat-rooms talking to “hot babes.” Uncle Rico lives in his van trying to recapture the glory of 1982, the year he almost took the high school football team to the state championship. Other than these brief descriptions, there’s little to know about anyone in the film other than they’re all quite bizarre. And I guess that’s the joy of Napoleon Dynamite. The characters are so brazenly odd that they’re immediately endearing. Napoleon is a loser but he seems to work so hard at it that one can’t help but like him for his efforts.
Later in the film, Napoleon makes friends with Pedro (Efren Ramirez), the school’s lone Latino student. Pedro decides to run for class president and Napoleon helps him in his effort to beat the preppy Summer (Haylie Duff) for the job. Their joint promotional methods are what one could expect from two nerdy outsiders and not the type of unbelievable antics a typical Hollywood film might have them perform.
There’s precious little story and the plot mainly exists to string a bunch of set piece skits together but, somehow, it all works. The humor is most certainly not for everyone but, if you’ve ever felt like a geek or an outsider, Napoleon Dynamite will make you laugh a bit louder and harder than if you haven’t.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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