New York Minute was funny from beginning to end. It's a much better movie than critics say. Mary-Kate Olsen has a special comic energy, and Ashley Olsen can be hilarious, both as a physical comedian and in the ways she delivers her lines.
The supporting cast were almost all terrific: Eugene Levy, Andy Richter, Darrell Hammond, Andrea Martin. And the obligatory hot guys, Jared Padalecki and Riley Smith, were good too. The movie is continuously amusing, and there are hundreds of funny moments and good lines.
So why did so many critics hate it? Because they just didn't get what it was trying to do. The first cut in the sound track is the Bangles' "Doll Revolution" (written by Elvis Costello): "Who dries your eyes when you cry real tears?/Who knows or cares what an imitation is?/Only you do.../Tear off your own head/It's a doll revolution.../They're taking over/And they're tearing it down/It's a doll revolution." This movie is the revolution of the Olsen dolls, but the critics' ideas were too fixed to see the irony that pervades it. I'm tempted to think that the critics were too ageist and/or sexist to give young girls credit for being this aware.
Mary-Kate and Ashley have said they like to make fun of themselves and what they've done. They've said they wanted the movie to have a Christopher Guest feel and were fighting the studio to get it. If this movie has a problem, it's that it tries to be both ironic and straight, and in the end may be too multi-leveled for either the hip or the little-girl audience to like. When the two audiences finally do get it, I expect the DVD to become a minor cult classic.
Some critics say how limp and unrealistic the plot is. That's true, but the movie wasn't intended to be realistic. It's a live-action cartoon: South Park with beautiful twins. The perfunctory way it deals with important events like Roxy (Mary-Kate) getting her demo tape to some A&R guys is not a mistake, it's a clue: the movie intentionally subverts its own surface meaning. Criticizing it for its plot is like criticizing Rocky Horror for not being Gone With the Wind.
There is also the question of whether the sexual innuendo in the movie is inappropriate. I say no, but I can understand why some people disagree. I was taken aback myself for the first few minutes of the film. Then I thought: they are almost 18, and have far wider experience than most people twice their age. Who am I to tell them they can't use their sexuality in these innocent ways? One example: a big snake slithers onto the floor of the shower when Jane (Ashley) is there. But all you see is her lower legs and her shoulders, and her wonderful cartoon scream is justification enough for the scene.
It's basically sick that reviewers think of older men when Mary-Kate and Ashley have said they were trying to appeal to guys around their own age. When other actresses have similar things in their films, people don't bat an eye. But people still see the Olsens as the little twins from Full House, and recoil in horror. In fact, New York Minute never shows as much flesh as a bathing suit would. The Catholic News Service and the Christian Critic website both gave the film good reviews.
Some critics condemn the film for racism. I myself am of Chinese ancestry, and I didn't see anything wrong there at all. I actually loved the idea of a white guy who was adopted into a Chinese family and who wants to be Chinese. There were stereotyped aspects to the portrayals, but that goes for everything in the film, not just different races. It's comedy.
Why do people think MK&A can't act? Well, it's true that their enunciation fails them from time to time. Some words just get lost. But that was true of Marlon Brando, so give them a break. And their style is not intended to be realistic: they portray characters, they don't inhabit them. Their strength is comic shtick. I thought they were realistic enough, and as comics they were great. The couple of serious moments in the movie came off extremely well, much better than I expected.
Will its target audiences like it? Maybe, maybe not. Only if they can ignore the elements that are not meant for them. It is difficult to make a movie that will be loved by everyone from six-year-old girls to guys of 25. And perhaps the deep prejudice against the Olsens in audiences older than 15 just can't be overcome, at least not in this first engagement of the doll revolution.
