Credibility deficit sinks 'Drillbit Taylor'

Gene Roddenberry’s son once mentioned that while a movie audience needs to “suspend the disbelief,” the need for “fictional believability” requires credibility within that fantasy context and a movie which forfeits that credibility will collapse.

Rod Roddenberry explained that once the viewer no longer believes in the story, a character, or even a particular scene, the balloon of fictional disbelief is popped. Roddenberry’s words come to mind when watching the movie “Drillbit Taylor.”

It is acceptable to suspend the disbelief so that three teenage boys who are being bullied decide to hire a bodyguard. And it is acceptable to suspend the disbelief so that a homeless beach bum convinces the teenagers that he is suitable for the job. It is also within the realm of fictional believability that the homeless beach bum can pass for a substitute teacher while at the school.

The level of bullying the three teenagers take, however, nullifies the fictional believability Roddenberry mentioned. What wasn’t an overly humorous movie in the first place now becomes even less of a quality comedy film.

Two of the three teenagers knew each other from middle school, where they weren’t the most popular boys in the first place. During their first day of high school, they stand up for a third teenage boy who is the victim of two bullies. The bullies add the newcomers to their targets, torturing them continuously.

This is where the movie loses its fictional believability. The extent of the bullying itself is a stretch, but when the consequences make it evident to teachers and the principal that the bullying is occurring, no action is taken.

When the school administrators fail to take as minimal an action as referring the matter to school security or disciplining the bullies for truancy or tardiness when they spend time harassing their fellow students rather than heading to class, the movie’s credibility is lost.

The bullied students place an ad on the Internet for a bodyguard. Most of the applicants seek $10,000 per week, which is not only well beyond the students’ means but also well beyond what even a self-employed contractor can expect for bodyguard work. Ironically, that makes Drillbit Taylor the most credible applicant.

Drillbit Taylor, who is played by Owen Wilson, has decided that a bum can do better in Canada than in Southern California. All he needs is $367 for the trip – although the movie later notes that he is an Army deserter, which would create a few passport impediments should he cross an international border. Drillbit offers to be the bodyguard for $367 per week, and while even that is beyond the teenagers’ means they work out some arrangements.

Not only does Drillbit take a liking to the kids who need him, but he also takes a liking to an English teacher. His plans to get the $367 and get out are altered.

Owen Wilson previously played a self-promoting ne’er-do-well in the movie “Shanghai Knights.” That movie had more humor than “Drillbit Taylor” and also had more fictional believability.

The premise itself didn’t disqualify “Drillbit Taylor” from being a credible movie, but the circumstances within the film eliminated the audience’s ability to treat the film credibly.

When the impostor has more credibility than the plot, something is wrong with the movie. In a situation of fictional believability, the principal or teachers would have stepped in. In “Drillbit Taylor,” the writers and director should have stepped in to provide that fictional believability.