I think it’s hard to deny that Ben Stiller’s been in just a little bit too much these last couple of years. The guy’s everywhere, and it’s become a touch overwhelming. I love Ben Stiller – hell, I still pop in the old Ben Stiller Show DVDs from time to time – but overexposure kills. Add to that the fact that Stiller’s not been making the best choices and you have a real recipe for disaster.
Rather than slow down on his projects, it seems like Stiller is keeping up the pace, and today a new film has been announced for him: The Mirror. And frankly, I’m really torn about it.
In the film Ben Stiller plays Ben Stiller, famous comic actor, who wakes up one day to discover that his reflection from the mirror has escaped and now people like the mirror image better than the real guy.
So it’s sort of Being Ben Stiller? The idea of celebs playing themselves has been making a big comeback in the years since Spike Jonze’s film – on HBO Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage follow the Larry Sanders approach, while just last year we had Julia Roberts playing someone playing Julia Roberts in Oceans Twelve, and Brad Pitt has a project lined up where he’s going to play a guy who looks just like Brad Pitt. It’s getting awful pomo in here.
But while the premise isn’t exactly as scintillatingly new as it could be, if anyone can pull this off it’s going to be Stiller, who commissioned the script himself. Self-parody has always been his strong point, and his group of friends (including wife Christine Taylor and hetero lifemate Owen Wilson) can only make the film stronger. Angelina Jolie has also been cast, but apparently not as Jolie, which is weird.
I just want to see Ben Stiller be in a really good movie again. Not just a cameo in something brilliant like Anchorman, or a small role in something good like Dodgeball, and definitely no more Meet the Anythings. He’s a funny guy, and he obviously loves to work. I hope he channels those impulses better in the future, and I hope The Mirror is as good as it can be.