Black comedy’s current ‘it boy’ Kevin Hart is capitalizing on his meteoric rise to the top of the funny business and giving fans a taste of behind the scenes with “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain.”
The film winds up at his sold-out Madison Square Garden performance of the tour by the same name that took North America and parts of Europe by storm.
But before that fans must endure 25 minutes of what can best be described as a Kevin Hart commercial. An opening segment starts off funny enough ( enough being the operative word) where in a party setting Hart must deal with the fallout that comes with being a celebrity. He faces critics, haters and hangers on.
Hart decides that he’s going to take his frustrations to Madison Square Garden to tell his side of the story.
In a perfect world – or better yet a ‘no-duh’ world – Hart would make his way to the Garden and the gut-busting laughter would ensue.
That’s not what happens. Instead, viewers are given a birds-eye view of the ‘Let Me Explain’ tour on stops in Canada, Norway, England and Amsterdam to name a few.
It’s only after Hart reminds his audience of how far his explosion on the comedy scene actually rippled outside of the U.S. – with a few funny reality TV bits exploring life on the road abroad for good measure – that Hart actually, and quite abruptly, emerges on stage in New York.
The show is signature Kevin Hart – his style of comedy is as self-absorbed as it is self-deprecating, but it works.
He talks about his life as a little guy, his character flaws and his relationships have given him his own niche. And although the jokes of Let Me Explain are familiar, they are clever enough to make viewers chuckle twice.
As a total package, ‘Let Me Explain’ the film is underwhelming. The choppy manner in which the opening skit transitions into a documentary commercial layover before the actual standup performance impedes on the overall experience.
In all fairness to Hart and the minds behind the film, they were attempting do something groundbreaking in the form of a documentary/comedy concert hybrid.
The assumption is that Hart and company wanted to give fans something new in the film other than the material from the ‘Let Me Explain’ tour – which most of the audience will have probably already seen. Had the opening skit been more streamlined and focused, it could have been merged with the closing credits to create an impressive behind the scenes special preview promotion for ‘Let Me Explain’ for one of the cable networks.
However, as a film – mainly because of editing – the idea to include this backstage access didn’t quite work. Sadly, the powers that be were faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to interrupt the flow of Hart’s performance by interweaving the antics of him and his crew on the other side of the spotlight, or laboring viewers through the opening scenes.
‘Let Me Explain’ chose the second option – which was understandable.
But more intention and attention to detail with respect to the introducing the film by way of the skit and clips would have made all the difference.
Let Me Explain opens in theatres nationwide on July 3. The film is rated R with a running time of 75 minutes.
