‘The Bubble‘, the comedy that Netflix launched on April 1st of this year, directed and co-written by Judd Apatow had all the prerequisites to be a blockbuster. It starts from an excellent idea, refers directly in the satirical register to the pandemic that has haunted our lives for over two years, and deals with the film industry which is an inexhaustible theme of products of the same industry. And yet, despite the good intentions and the presence of a team of actors at least as weird as the heroes of the film, ‘The Bubble‘ loses almost all its air, managing to be just another comedy, with a great starting point and enough acceptable moments to be remembered, but too long, confusing and repetitive to make the viewing itself enjoyable. The two minutes trailer is fun, the problem is that the two hours plus movie does not add a lot.
The starting point is, as I wrote, tempting. In the first months of the pandemic, before the advent of vaccines (accessible in advance only to the very rich), ‘bubbles’ were in vogue, ie groups of people tested and presumed healthy, gathered for a productive purpose or just to spend time together, without fear of contamination. One such group is brought together in a mansion in England to shoot episode 6 of a super-production with monsters and dinosaurs with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. The team of actors, some famous, other younger, amateurs and stuntmen, plus an eccentric director and the production directors is heavily guarded, with electronic means and lethal weapons that security personnel do not hesitate to use when needed. Isolations and quarantines follow one another, production faces all sorts of obstacles, including Covid-19 cases overshadowed by conflicts between actors, director, producers, hotel staff and security guards. Everything that can go wrong will go very wrong.
The comedy of situations is somewhat outdated and I don’t know if there is anyone responsible for this other than time that has very quickly revealed the ineffectiveness of isolation methods and the permeability of various ‘bubble’ formulas. In addition, any viewer of this film has experienced the ‘sanitary’ situations described on the screen and many do not feel like laughing. The satirical part of the celebrity system, the lack of a cultural horizon and the thirst for publicity of actors fighting for screen time and glory would have been a more appropriate and authentic material, but here comes visible the main problem of the script: too many characters who sometimes do not they differ from each other not even in stereotypes, too many confusing events and no clear line of action or dosage of comedy. Had the film lasted only 90-100 minutes it would still have been acceptable, but its stretching to over two hours is not justified at all. There are a few good gags, especially those related to film effects including acting in front of the ‘green walls’. From the cast I can’t help but mention David Duchovny, who for me, as a lifelong fan of the ‘X-Files’ series, is forever associated with the role of Agent Murdoch. As the years go by, Duchovny starts resembling Walter Matthau, and perhaps in time he will reach his comic essence. ‘The Bubble‘ is a comedy that needs not be avoided, but also one that is not necessarily required to be watched.