The Man Who Knew Too LittleEspionage, assassination attempts, and sabotage can seem like a game to someone who doesn't know it isn't one. Take Wallace "Wally" Ritchie (Bill Murray): an American tourist from Des Moines, Iowa who comes to London on his birthday to visit his banker brother, James (Peter Gallagher). But James is tied up preparing for a dinner conference, and instead pays for Wally's admission to the "Theater of Life", an improvisational, live-action role-playing theater performance until his meeting is over. Wally accidentally adopts the identity of a professional killer named "Spencer", who is actually sent to kill the troublesome Lorelei/"Lori" (Joanne Whalley). Wally not only rewrites his "script" and joins forces with her, but begins shaking up a larger conspiracy to derail a peace accord between England and Russia.
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Wally is a simple but good-natured fellow; James recalls that Wally always wanted to be an actor, but never pursued it due to stage fright. They joke with James's wife, Barbara (Anna Chancellor), that he's in the "movie business"--he works at a Blockbuster Video store back home. In a different movie, Wally would be jealous of his more successful (and slightly smarmy) brother--but The Man Who Knew Too Little plots its course for light-hearted comedy and stays confidently in that lane. Wally doesn't harbor any resentment toward James, and James is pleased to see his brother, except for the unfortunate timing. It becomes clear that Wally does have unrealized dreams of being an actor; even though James's impromptu gift is meant to keep Wally busy and away from the boring business dinner that's stressing James out, it proves to be a real turning point for him. The pervading irony in The Man Who Knew Too Little is that Wally doesn't have any idea that he's a part of anything other than a play with a complicated plot. He pretends to be a man of mystery and a secret agent because he is so committed to the role; because of Wally's dedication, everyone else--even the real spies--believe him to be one. From the moment Wally adopts the persona of Spencer, there are essentially two concurrent plots happening simultaneously--one that Wally believes is the thespian adventure he's a part of, and the other being the actual game of spies going on around him. The audience is introduced to Wally as the kind of guy who will talk an immigration officer's ear off about the purpose of his visit and mistake James's maid for his wife. But when Wally puts on his wraparound sunglasses and intrudes on Lorelei in a French maid outfit--intended to seduce her lover and British Defense Minister, Gilbert Embleton (John Standing)--she believes that Wally/Spencer is the hitman he pretends to be, and that a vial of nasal spray in his coat pocket is the barrel of a gun. Surprisingly, everyone in the conspiracy takes Wally's persona at face value, and he comes across as both a smooth operator and unpredictable. When Wally encounters the real Spencer (Terry O'Neill), he bursts through the door with a mallet à la Jack Nicholson in The Shining, picks up the actual hitman's pistol, and scares him off. The thrill of The Man Who Knew Too Little comes from the possibility that at any moment, Wally's ruse will be discovered, or that he'll figure out that he's mixed up in something beyond the scope of his abilities. Fortunately that moment never comes, and Wally miraculously escapes being detected by remaining "in character" in every hilarious scene.
Even from the opening credits--depicting the construction of a plastique-filled matroishka (nesting) doll--it is clear that The Man Who Knew Too Little borrows from other spy spoofs, like The Pink Panther. The musical score also shares some similarities, using frequent riffs on the song, "Fever" by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell--and popularized by performers like Peggy Lee--to echo the kind of music featured in the cloak-and-dagger flicks of yesteryear. Wally bumbles his way through a seemingly impenetrable conspiracy concocted by Sir Roger Daggenhurst (Richard Wilson) and his "comrade", Sergei (Nicholas Woodeson) to reignite East-West tensions. They are so romanced in their own nostalgia for Cold War spy games that they use oblique code phrases to describe their dirty deeds--like "flushing" for killing and "plumbers" for wetwork killers--setting the stage for hilarious puns and mixed messages between them and Wally. Throwaway details mentioned early on are revisited later for comedy, like how Wally and James agree to smoke a pair of Cuban cigars--called "Ambassadors"--minutes before the end of his official birthday. When Wally (as Spencer) alludes to this detail in such a way for Daggenhurst, the scheming Brit believes that Spencer is aware of the entire scheme, down to the exact time of the detonation. Even the notorious killer Sergei pulls out of semi-retirement named Boris "The Butcher" Blavasky (Alfred Molina) sees Wally not as an American tourist chewing the scenery, but as an "American Superman", who possesses a preternatural ability to predict and nullify his best efforts to neutralize him. Seemingly innocuous details crop up again and again and help Wally get out of crazy situations. For example, Boris's Old Spice cologne causes Wally's allergies to flare up, giving him a way to knock out two henchmen for the price of one, even while tied to a chair. Lorelei plies Wally with her femme fatale routine, trying to seduce him into helping her recover some incriminating love letters to blackmail Gilbert. But through their misadventures, his enthusiasm for the "plot" they are caught up in causes her to fall for the pseudo-spy. There is playful innuendo between Lori and Wally, and they grow closer traveling from point to point in her surprisingly agile Mini Cooper--even giving the local "Bobbies" a good chase. There are moments of poignancy between them as their relationship flourishes, like their "explosive" kiss on the banks of the Thames. When Wally regrets that he didn't get to keep his "doll", and that the valise full of British pounds is just "silly money" and "isn't real", Lori interprets this as Zen-like wisdom from a man full of confidence--which is always a turn on. Despite it being unlikely that Wally will ever figure out the reality of his situation, there's a strong indication that Lori does in the epilogue. But even though Wally may be just an average guy caught up in a web of intrigue, he represents something more real to her than all the schemes and plots she was a part of before.
Recommended for: Fans of a hilarious spy movie spoof that inspires copious laughter with its puns, misunderstandings, persistent cases of mistaken identity, and the outrageous ways Wally eludes danger by accidental means. The Man Who Knew Too Little plays with violent and suggestive themes, yet abandons graphic content in favor of comedic insinuations instead.
Even from the opening credits--depicting the construction of a plastique-filled matroishka (nesting) doll--it is clear that The Man Who Knew Too Little borrows from other spy spoofs, like The Pink Panther. The musical score also shares some similarities, using frequent riffs on the song, "Fever" by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell--and popularized by performers like Peggy Lee--to echo the kind of music featured in the cloak-and-dagger flicks of yesteryear. Wally bumbles his way through a seemingly impenetrable conspiracy concocted by Sir Roger Daggenhurst (Richard Wilson) and his "comrade", Sergei (Nicholas Woodeson) to reignite East-West tensions. They are so romanced in their own nostalgia for Cold War spy games that they use oblique code phrases to describe their dirty deeds--like "flushing" for killing and "plumbers" for wetwork killers--setting the stage for hilarious puns and mixed messages between them and Wally. Throwaway details mentioned early on are revisited later for comedy, like how Wally and James agree to smoke a pair of Cuban cigars--called "Ambassadors"--minutes before the end of his official birthday. When Wally (as Spencer) alludes to this detail in such a way for Daggenhurst, the scheming Brit believes that Spencer is aware of the entire scheme, down to the exact time of the detonation. Even the notorious killer Sergei pulls out of semi-retirement named Boris "The Butcher" Blavasky (Alfred Molina) sees Wally not as an American tourist chewing the scenery, but as an "American Superman", who possesses a preternatural ability to predict and nullify his best efforts to neutralize him. Seemingly innocuous details crop up again and again and help Wally get out of crazy situations. For example, Boris's Old Spice cologne causes Wally's allergies to flare up, giving him a way to knock out two henchmen for the price of one, even while tied to a chair. Lorelei plies Wally with her femme fatale routine, trying to seduce him into helping her recover some incriminating love letters to blackmail Gilbert. But through their misadventures, his enthusiasm for the "plot" they are caught up in causes her to fall for the pseudo-spy. There is playful innuendo between Lori and Wally, and they grow closer traveling from point to point in her surprisingly agile Mini Cooper--even giving the local "Bobbies" a good chase. There are moments of poignancy between them as their relationship flourishes, like their "explosive" kiss on the banks of the Thames. When Wally regrets that he didn't get to keep his "doll", and that the valise full of British pounds is just "silly money" and "isn't real", Lori interprets this as Zen-like wisdom from a man full of confidence--which is always a turn on. Despite it being unlikely that Wally will ever figure out the reality of his situation, there's a strong indication that Lori does in the epilogue. But even though Wally may be just an average guy caught up in a web of intrigue, he represents something more real to her than all the schemes and plots she was a part of before.
Recommended for: Fans of a hilarious spy movie spoof that inspires copious laughter with its puns, misunderstandings, persistent cases of mistaken identity, and the outrageous ways Wally eludes danger by accidental means. The Man Who Knew Too Little plays with violent and suggestive themes, yet abandons graphic content in favor of comedic insinuations instead.