14) Get Him to the Greek (2010): The Jeffrey
Get Him to the Greek was an offshoot of the very well received Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), in which Russell Brand played the fairly minor role of British rock-star bad-boy, Aldous Snow. Announced less than a week after the release of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this follow up was a direct response to the tumultuous reception Brand received for his portrayal of Snow, and his affable combination of effortless coolness and stereotypical British politeness.
In Get Him to the Greek, Aldous Snow is off the wagon on which we saw him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and back on sauces of every description. This, plus the disastrous reception of his mis-pitched single “African Child,” has effectively ended Snow’s career, much to the dismay of avid fan and musical talent scout, Aaron (Jonah Hill.)
Aaron pitches the idea to his employer that if they could convince Snow to play at the Greek Theatre on the tenth anniversary of his last gig there, the company could be responsible for the revival of Snow’s career. Aaron is then tasked with what he imagines will be the hugely exciting job of escorting Snow from England to Los Angles, in time for the performance. Aaron soon discovers, however, that Aldous Snow is a petulant, unpredictable, unreliable drunk, with no regard for schedules, reputation, the public, sobriety – or Aaron. What ensues for Aaron is the sort of journey that makes losing your luggage at the airport look like accidentally dropping an ice-cream.
Both Brand and Hill were praised for their performances, and overall the movie was received as a decent comedy. But the second half was noticeably weaker than the first, with some of the more slapstick content making the hilarity begin to feel rather stretched. Before whoever it was in the editing department went on a clearly permanent tea-break, however, there is one last glorious hurrah from the smarter half of the film. This is the “Jeffrey” scene.
At this point in the movie, Aldous and Aaron are in Las Vegas, so that Aldous can see his estranged father, Jonathon. While Aldous and Johnathon argue in a hotel suite, Aaron is elsewhere, being “raped” by an, er, rather sexually enthusiastic girl. When Aaron reappears and tells Aldous what happened, Aldous offers support in the form of a “Jeffrey,” which appears to be a joint. After only a couple of drags, Aaron’s heartrate goes through the roof and he asks what’s in it. With characteristic casualness, Aldous answers that it’s a “a bit of this, a bit of that….” which turns out to include weed, along with opium, heroin, ecstasy, Clorox, Methodone, Subutex, morphine…some other stuff that’s unidentifiable, “and a bit of glue – y’know, keeping it traditional. It’s like a drug neopolitan.”
Eventually, given that Aaron is genuinely convinced he’s having a heart attack, Aldous gets up and takes him to stroke one of the room’s furry walls in an attempt to calm him down. Meanwhile, Jonathon laughs cruelly at Aaron, and Aaron’s psychotic boss Sergio (scene-stealingly played by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs) shows up in order to ‘mindf**k’ Aldous into coming to LA.
Immediately the scene descends into absolute mayhem, as Aldous yells at his dad for bullying his friend, Sergio yells that everyone needs to take of the hit of the Jeffery to calm them down (while looking about as calm as a wasp on speed), Aldous smashes Jonathon over the head with a guitar, and Jonathon pulls a gun on him. Aaron panics further at the sight of the gun, with Aldous yelling at him to “keep stroking the wall, just keep stroking the wall!” as the cacophony of shouting and fighting escalates around them.
It is true that this scene depends largely on the slapstick element that many critics thought decreased the movie’s comedy value. But it is the speed at which the chaos develops, contrasted against Snow’s determinedly British attempts to handle the situation, which makes this scene surprisingly funny at both a physical, and a more subtle level. This is ultimately best demonstrated by Aldous as he continues to try and reassure Aaron, amidst the bedlam, that he’s not having a heart attack. Aldous runs over to Aaron at the wall, appearing at Aaron’s side with a berserk shout. But the moment he himself puts his face and hands against the fur, he closes his eyes and collapses into it with the words “why can’t everything be this simple?” Honest and hilarious in equal measure, the words only work on the basis of the utter carnage unfolding in the background.
Brand and Hill may have both given strong performances in this movie, and also created a crucial chemistry between their characters. But there is no doubt that for this five minutes of the film, they are outperformed by two other stars: the Jeffery, and a furry wall.
