The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

I've never understood the success of Tim Allen; I always thought of Home Improvement as that crappy show people put up with because it was on in between other, more humorous sitcoms. Perhaps his bumbling, grunting, borderline retarded family man shtick appealed to some middle American Republican notion of domesticity. Maybe his proximity to big-breasted gits like Pamela Anderson gave him a certain bridge and tunnel, mechanic and construction worker appeal that the folks at Disney thought ideal for children's fare like The Santa Claus or The Shaggy Dog. I honestly don't know. But I do feel comfortable pointing out that The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, which was incidentally written and directed by one of the staff writers on Home Improvement, might symbolize the end of his career. He plays the titular Lefay, a wide-eyed idiot with a franchise of box stores (think "Noooooo-body") who has five (soon to be six) ex-wives. Moving past the unlikelihood of anyone buying Allen as charming, or women like Paz Vega and Jenna Elfman marrying him for "love," this comedy of ever-surmounting shenanigans brings everyone together for Lefay's funeral. Thing is, he's not dead. At the centre of everything is his daughter, Barbara (Elisha Cuthbert), whose exasperation for her father's bad judgment and Peter Pan bullshit is the quiet impetus behind the constant bad jokes about bickering women and funeral home screw-ups. (Oh no, will they knock the coffin over while fighting?) She learns an insulting Judeo-Christian lesson of unconditional family love, even when your family is a bunch of self-involved tools that lead you to a misanthropic adulthood of alcoholism and unhealthy relationships. It's crap, much like the movie itself, which has no charm or staying power beyond Elfman's enthused insanity and Allen's unconvincing butt-double. I felt genuinely bad for almost everyone involved. At least Andie MacDowell looked like she knew what she was in for, delivering her dialogue as though she were thinking about what to have for dinner after shooting. Unsurprisingly, no supplements are included with the DVD.