Week of May 3 – 9, 2020
Harkening back to childhood often leads to nostalgic, happy memories, and many films have attempted to channel these feelings. One that has wildly succeeded at recapturing the joyful exuberance of youth, but in characters thirty years past their childhoods, is Tag. It was one of my favorite films of 2018 and a second viewing has dimmed its appeal to me only slightly.
I don’t care much for the poster, since five faces staring at you with various states of intensity conveys nothing of the game of Tag, nor what these characters are even thinking about. If anything about the poster is important, it is the level of talent that is involved in this film. You’ve got an Oscar nominee, Emmy winners, familiar faces, and a couple of people about whom I was unaware until I saw this comedy. Tag is decidedly well cast, and the cast seems to be having a blast on screen.
One month each year five friends play Tag. Since they live separate lives in distant cities, they don’t see each other all that much, but the game enlivens their friendship, serving as a tether to keep them in contact. During May, anything goes. Players travel across the country, do surveillance, dress in disguises, hide around corners, set traps and go to elaborate lengths just to tag another player and make that person It. An exhaustive set of rules, worked out over the years and complete with amendments, controls the flow of the game and ensures fair play. The five guys love playing the game — but they would dearly love to finally nail the unconquerable Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), who has never, repeat never, been tagged. But the guys learn that Jerry is going to marry at the end of May, and the game is afoot.
Hoagie Malloy (Ed Helms) is the driving force behind the push to finally, finally tag Jerry, and it takes some heavy persuading (and tagging) to push stoner Randy “Chilli” Cilliano (Jake Johnson), mild mannered Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress) and uptight executive Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm) into action. But once Hoagie explains Jerry’s vulnerability — he has to be at the wedding events, and cannot hide or flee — they are on board. Joining them is writer Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), who was trying to interview Bob for a feature, and follows him when he abruptly leaves for this crazy adventure. Rebecca thinks that a bunch of grown men playing a game of Tag is a better story than the one she was doing — and she is right. The film itself is based on a front page Wall Street Journal article about a group of grown men playing Tag that was published a few years previously.
Sure, the premise is silly, but it’s a lot of fun, too. At times everyone in the group acts childishly, or does something really stupid, which only reflects the kid in them acting out. But it all develops from character, which is how the best comedies (and dramas, too, for that matter) are constructed. This group is a lot of fun as they banter, reminisce about the past, dream of better things and plan together to finally take Jerry down. Aiding them is Hoagie’s wife Anna (Isla Fisher), who is more intense than any of them. If she were allowed to play (it’s the original group only) she would probably put some of them into the hospital with her enthusiasm.
Jeremy Renner is perfectly cast as Jerry, the undisputed king of Tag players. Viewers may notice some Hawkeye moves in Jerry’s acrobatic evasions, as he calmly studies his opponents, weighs the options and chooses those that lead to the highest rate of humiliation for his pursuer. Adding to the fun is that when Jerry is attacked, the action often freezes or slows down so we can hear what Jerry is thinking as he uses his ninja skills to keep his thirty-year record intact.
Other characters weave in and out of the story, too. Hoagie’s mother Linda (Nora Dunn) likes all of his friends, but especially Chilli. Lou (Steve Berg), the bartender at their favorite hangout, wants desperately to join the group, but is constantly rebuffed. Jerry’s bride-to-be, Susan (Leslie Bibb), gets into the action as well, but only after warning her fiancé’s buffoonish friends not to ruin her wedding, or else. Jerry enlists the help of beautiful Cheryl Deakins (Rashida Jones) to distract Chilli and Bob, both of whom still carry torches for her from grade school. You may even recognize Thomas from the Verizon commercials (Thomas Middleditch) as the creepy guy at the gym who has some very strange hangups.
Part of the fun of this story is to see just how far the characters will go to get Jerry, and how far he has planned ahead to evade them. When they break into his house to try to find him, Jerry is ready and turns the tables on them in a terrific turnabout scene. Every time they have him cornered, he wiggles his way out of it. The scene in a shopping mall is beautifully set up, yet Jerry escapes again. The gym scene pushes things a bit too far, but the group realizes this and comes back to Earth, for a while at least. And then comes a controversial scene when Susan becomes involved and everybody feels bad for a while. But not too long. Remember, it’s all in the name of comedy.
The guy with whom I identify most is Hoagie; he’s the driving force to play, and it is he who becomes the focus of the story at its climax. But for some reason I cannot pin down, it seems to me that Chilli is the glue that holds the group together. He seems the least of them, yet I think they listen to him and look after him. It’s a weird dynamic at times; see what you think.
Having the reporter Rebecca along for the ride is smart, because it helps them explain things. She asks questions and tries not to interfere, but there are times in the story when she seems to disappear. I would prefer that she be more involved, perhaps more critical of what she is witnessing. But at least she is there at the climax and finally has a story to submit.
Like my first choice for this category, El Dorado, this is a story that celebrates the importance of friendship. Friends that would walk through (or hop over) walls for each other, to share in the good things of life together, and to be there through the hard times. Their camaraderie is so strong and powerful, I wish I had such people in my life, or that I had had the foresight to initiate a game of Tag like this years ago to keep those that I love closer together in a fun way. It certainly says something about me that these friendship-themed films are so enthralling to me; I just hope you can enjoy them in a similar fashion.
I love the ending. After the wedding everybody gathers in an unexpected place and the score is finally settled. Then the unexpected, at least to me, happens and the fun begins anew. I wondered how director Jeff Tomsic would wrap up his first feature film, and I think he and writers Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen did a first-rate job imagining and then filming a proper ending for this story; the last few minutes are my favorites of the entire film. The film is available on DVD and can be streamed as well. Enjoy! ☆ ☆ ☆. Backdated to May 3, 2020.
Similar films include The Best of Times (1986); Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004); others which I cannot remember right now.