One of my favorite moments in The Truman Show, which is one of my fav-o-rit-est movies of all the time, is toward the end, after Ed Harris’s megalomaniacal producer-father-God character realizes that his creation, Truman, can’t be found. Marlon, the best friend character played by Noah Emmerich, is sent over to Truman’s house to try to rustle him up. The entire existence of the show which pays Marlon’s salary and has made him famous in doubt, and yet Marlon’s been so well trained that he remembers, after rushing out of his car, to turn around and reach back into it for the six-pack of beer which he has to carry around with him, and be seen visibly enjoying, in order to fulfill the terms of the product placement contract between the network and the beer company.
It’s a grace note, an afterthought joke that a lesser movie wouldn’t have thought to make. It’s also a testament to the subtle talent of Noah Emmerich, who’s pitch perfect as the perfectly average, perfectly bland, conformity-enforcing best friend.
I was thinking of Emmerich over the weekend because, after seeing him in Little Children, the new very good movie based on the very good novel by Tom Perrotta, I’m prepared to nominate him as one of the great Movie Mooks of our time.
In Little Children, the characterization is more complex – in The Truman Show he’s been hired to be normal, whereas in Little Children he’s a burnt out cop who assumes the role of community superego to hide from his feelings of inadequacy – but he’s definitely still a mook. As he is in Julie Johnson (also a good movie, by the way), where his insensitive, working class, stiff husband serves as the embodiment of all the repressive conventions which have kept Lili Taylor’s character’s sexuality and individuality locked up inside herself for so long.
A lot of good work has been done by others on the Movie Dick, but as far as I know, I’m the first to duly classify and notarize a Movie Mook, and since Emmerich is the first one I’ve notarized, that makes him the inaugural Movie Mook. Congratulations, Noah.
