The Freshman

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Director: Andrew Bergman
Stars: Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller
Year:  1990 Running Time:  102 mins Rating: 2 out of 5 CERT: PG

Following "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", Matthew Broderick was at his peak in this offbeat comedy that features Marlon Brando happily sending up his Godfather persona. A hard-up film student loses his possessions and becomes mixed up with a local businessman/gangster's dubious schemes, ranging from restaurant heists to the theft of rare animals.

Review

Brando skates! Yes, Hollywood's heavyweight maverick genius takes to the ice like a moving waxwork of The Godfather in this pleasant comedy that runs like a classic American short story, complete with laconic background narration by Marlon Brando's co-star Matthew Broderick.

There was once a running gag in the US stage production of Arsenic and Old Lace about an escapee (played by Boris Karloff) enraged to be told that he looked like Boris Karloff!

It's repeated here, as characters are always about to tell Brando's influential 'importer' that he reminds them of The Godfather, but never quite spit it out.

How Broderick comes to New York to study, comes into possession of a rare komodo dragon, falls into the clutches of the Mafia and ends up at a gourmet banquet where the guests pay $350,00 a head, is related to the dry humour of such vintage American storytellers as O Henry and James Thurber.

Brando's a delight, even when you can't hear all the words, in this inconsequential but flavoursome little entertainment.

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