Lawrence Guterman specialises in putting cartoon antics beside live actors. Son of the Mask makes a dispiriting case for what happens when the effects get more attention than the jokes.
Fi1m perspective
In Son of the Mask (2005), a shape-shifting baby gets more attention than the adults trying to cope with it. Lawrence Guterman keeps reaching for another effect when the situation needs time to become funny. We were bored because each new effect interrupted a situation that might have made us laugh. Jamie Kennedy supplies occasional warmth, but the direction gives frantic movement far too much to do. It is a poor family comedy with a workable premise.
That wish to put cartoon behaviour into live-action settings has a clearer practical purpose in Cats & Dogs (2001), his feature debut. Its combination of live animals, puppets and CGI serves a spy comedy, giving the technical work a recognisable genre to play with. Before that, he had directed sequences for Antz (1998), so animation was already part of his work. His background in physics informs his involvement in visual effects. There is a useful skill here: getting unlike elements to occupy the same scene convincingly.
Son of the Mask exposes the limits of that skill when the effects are expected to carry the comedy themselves. The attempt to bring Looney Tunes-style antics into live action is easy enough to understand; the difficulty is making those antics matter to the people sharing the screen. Parenthood offers Guterman a useful comic problem, an adult trying to manage a child who cannot be managed. He scarcely lets that problem develop. The human cast needs room to react, and Kennedy's warmth makes that neglect more frustrating.
Later directing work includes episodes of Out of Jimmy's Head (2008) and Mongo Wrestling Alliance (2011), taking the career into television. His ability to handle mixed techniques deserves acknowledgement. It is hard to enjoy while waiting for a laugh in Son of the Mask.
Biography
Lawrence Guterman is a Canadian film director. He directed the feature films Cats & Dogs (2001) and Son of the Mask (2005).
He received a physics degree from Harvard University after attending MIT, and later a master's degree in film from the University of Southern California. His short film Headless! won the Grand Jury Prize at the Houston International Film Festival.
Guterman directed sequences for the animated film Antz (1998) and episodes of the television series Out of Jimmy's Head (2007–2008).
