The main selling points for seeing 'Rhinoceros' were Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. Both immensely gifted and much missed performers and their partnership in 'The Producers' deserves legendary status. The source material that 'Rhinoceros' will never be one of my favourites, but it is interesting and entertaining. That it is one of the films making up the American Film Theatre series was another interest point and did expect a fair bit.
'Rhinoceros' to me is one of the weakest of this inconsistent series of films adapted from plays, one that started off so well but was very mixed from 'A Delicate Balance' onwards. Of the other films in the series, only 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris' is worse and the film is a not a patch on the earlier winners 'The Iceman Cometh' and 'The Homecoming'. 'Rhinoceros' definitely has its good things, but it primarily suffers from trying too hard and taking the wrong approach to the source material.
As said, there are things done well. Wilder had always been a very funny and expressive performer and actor, he shows both here beautifully whether verbal or non-verbal. Mostel is larger than life, without dominating too much, and often riotous. His finest being his transformation scene. A very memorable scene, for Mostel's delivery and the very effective use of shadows and POV camera angles. Wilder and Mostel are a dream together, having lost none of what made their chemistry so memorable in 'The Producers'.
Karen Black's honest performance is the standout of the rest of the cast, the overall standard of the rest of the cast being not bad at all. The dialogue is still fun, although there are a number of deviations and changes (most of the adaptations of the American Film Theatre series were actually quite faithful). There is some nice photography, particularly interesting in the transformation.
However, a lot doesn't work. As said, 'Rhinoceros' does try too hard and is very bizarre. Absurdist humour is meant to be strange but usually not this strange, this film goes overboard to beating around the head degrees and like some incredibly weird, increasingly confused and uncomfortable dream that one can't wake up from. Cohesion is lost as a result and the tone felt muddled. Some of the imagery in the more bizarre scenes are pretty cheap and at odds with the dialogue. The pace can be too frantic but it also can be tedious from doing too little with its content. For example what makes the play so relevant and the political references are both too toned down and preachy, as well as now out of date.
It would have been better too if the humour was delivered in a more deadpan way, that way it wouldn't have felt so over the top, strained and vulgar. A consequence of approaching from too farcical an approach and overdoing the farce. The music also dates the film and very of the time. There was a sense to me that 'Rhinoceros' didn't know what it wanted or was trying to be and was instead experimenting the entire time.
Summing up, one-time watchable but the second weakest of this interesting but uneven series of films. 5/10.
