The Darwin Awards (2006)

Submitted by corwin on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 9:45pm

Today, after moving my home theater pc into my bedroom, I decided to check out a new (to me, anyway) service from Netflix, "Watch Instantly." It allows you to stream movies from their catalog directly to your computer, using a plugin to Internet Explorer (I've read you can also use Mozilla and the IE Tab plugin, but I haven't tried it myself). The first instant viewing recommendation from Netflix was the 2006 independent film, The Darwin Awards. Being a big fan of the Darwin Awards in general, I didn't even bother to read the description of the movie. I just dived right in.

Joseph Fiennes plays a forensic detective who is being filmed around the clock by a documentary filmmaker. When his severe hematophobia causes him to lose the suspect in a series of serial murders, he loses his job and his obsession with the Darwin Awards takes over. He approaches an insurance company with the idea of hiring him to do a study on the common factors among who manage to kill themselves in fantastically stupid ways, showing he could save them millions. They pair him with one of their claims investigators, played by Winona Ryder, and they travel across the country looking into a variety of bizarre accidents. All of my favorite Darwin recipients are there. The movie opens with scenes of the rocket-powered car, a perennial favorite. Most are urban legends rather than true Darwin award winners, but they're still entertaining to see on the screen. Some are even combinations of multiple stories. All, of course, are testaments to the astounding heights to which human stupidity can aspire. The movie isn't simply a collection of dramatizations of several stupendously moronic stunts, however. That would still have made for a lot of viewing fun, to be sure. But the writers managed to tie everything together with the ongoing evolution of Fiennes's character from a man who lives his life in an almost pathologically safe manner to someone willing to take almost Darwinian risks to finally try and catch a serial killer. The only downside of the store is the obligatory love that develops between him and Ryder's character. I had high hopes for a while that it wouldn't happen, but I've learned to live with disappointment. I got the impression everyone involved really enjoyed working on this one, which always scores major points with me. This was especially evident in Metallica's involvement with the urban legend about the two drunk fans who died trying to get into one of their concerts. It made the viewing experience that much more enjoyable, and helped this movie gain it's negative 0.8 Bolls.