...nor does it aspire to be very funny, and therein lies the problem. Two disparate non-professional stand-up comics in New York find common ground in their need to get up on stage and perform, which sounds like a good start for a comedy starring Sally Field and Tom Hanks. Unfortunately, writer-director David Seltzer has designed the picture as a 'dramedy'--striving to show us the dark, desperate side of comedians--and his film is so full of heartbreaking little asides and tension-filled pauses that one begins to squirm. "Punchline" deals with the anxiety of getting a performance right, but neither Field nor Hanks possesses the right timing to be convincing as a stand-up comic (it's something intrinsic in a performer that can't easily be duplicated by actors, no matter how talented). Seltzer wants us to see the narcissism and insecurity, the need for Hanks' Steven Gold to adopt a brash stage presence and how that affects his personal life, but none of these ingredients are really welcomed by viewers attracted to a story about funny men and women. Field's housewife, Lilah, who makes audiences laugh with coy sex jokes, is an unreal creation, but Field comes off slightly better than her co-star simply because she's ingratiating Sally Field, and even her emotional outbursts are charming. Elsewhere, John Goodman as Field's husband shines up a throwaway role, and Mark Rydell is appropriately grimy as a nightclub M. C. The writing is so purposefully sour that we can't tell whether or not it was intended when a joke bombs. Seltzer pumps up Hanks' character with self-infatuated/self-loathing pomposity, but his real goal is in bringing Steven back down to Earth, humbling him...none of which is very entertaining. *1/2 from ****
Review of Punchline
