Such is Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson, who appears to be a bum at first glance on a set of white steps, among two other people who are sleeping in rags and far from clean. Navin misses his family and decides to tell us, the audience, how he got to his current state as at one point in time he was wealthy and had the love of a beautiful woman. The rest of the movie is told in flashback. Usually this first few minutes of talking to the camera about subjects you see in movies all the time is tedious, but what saves this enough to enjoy the past unravel is Martin’s keen sense of comic timing when he unleashes the zinger that he misses his poor black family.
See, Navin was a white boy adopted into a black family as an infant when he was left on their doorstep in Mississippi. He finds this out on his birthday, when his mother prepares him a special snack of twinkies and Tab while the rest of the family eats a hardy meal. His father hands him a zippo from the war and Navin breaks down crying, exclaiming that he’s having that funny feeling again, as if he doesn’t belong. After realizing that he can’t beat time to the blues with his family, but can to the oldies on the radio, he sets out to search for his fortunate future.
The heart-warming familial advice before he ventures into the world: 1) recognizing the difference between shoe polish and excrement. 2) Don’t trust Whitey.
He spends an entire day and evening outside the house with his thumb up, waiting for the opportunity to hitchhike. His family prays for his health and welfare and even calls out good wishes but he doesn’t come back for dinner. When he is finally picked up, he is only taken from one side of the yard to another, and still thanks the driver for his company.
Finally Navin makes his way from one highway to the next, heading towards St. Louis, because that’s where the music he could dance to was coming from. The first job he accidentally walks into is at a gas station, where he invents a simple device to keep a customer’s glasses in place. The customer promises to split the proceeds of the device with him 50/50 but Navin is run off by a madman who suddenly appears from nowhere and starts to shoot at him.
This brings him to working for a circus. He hooks up with a butch female motorcyclist briefly and falls in love at first sight with Marie (Bernadette Peters), who leaves him because of his lack of wealth and a promise to her mother. Of course, Navin is tracked down for his invention, now known as an Opti-grab, and instantly becomes a millionaire.
Every once in a while during this incredulous journey he writes to his family and sends money home, like a dutiful child. They get to shake their heads when he discusses losing his virginity to the motorcycle queen “I wish you all could have been with me. Maybe at some point though because I plan to do this as much as possible.” (Note – that was not an exact quote but a general idea of said correspondence.) They become worried when he’s donating blood in exchange for food, one pint per meal for three square meals a day. With each drama they pray for him and with each succeed we get a resounding “That’s my boy!”
But I don’t want to digress too much more into the plot because that is not what is important about this movie. Yes, you can predict almost every move and every action before it happens. Yes, there are coincidences thrown into the scheme of things to simply pull off a sight gag or further the plot along. So what is so entertaining about this?
First of all the script, though not completely original even for 1979, was still intelligently crafted so that your interest is held through the stereotypical scenes that you might normally fast forward. For instance, each one of the letters Navin’s family reads together is funny enough of its own merit. The camera doesn’t need to also show those scenes but instead lingers on his family’s reactions to the news.
It’s also worth noting that, for a film that could have relied on racial jokes for sight gags and other puns, it only had two specific references to Navin growing up with a black family. One is in the beginning when he gets to understand why he is different and the other is when he verbally explodes at an employee who says the word “n*gger”, which is also the only moment where he shows a flicker of intelligence. (Note: For those with race issues, or issues with films that relate racial detail, there is nothing offensive to worry about.)
I find it amazing that, even 20 years later, the humor is still fresh, not so much for the jokes themselves as because of the delivery. This is probably due to having jokes and sight gags that vary in their physical and verbal execution instead of depending solely on one or the other like a run-of-the-mill slapstick comedy a la Dumb and Dumber. But part of this film’s ability to please is that Martin is so amusing to watch, because you can’t help thinking: Nobody is really that stupid, surely! It intrigued me just how far this internal audience statement justified the entertainment value of the script.
The Jerk was only Martin’s second feature film, as a key character and based on a story that he wrote (the first was The Absent-Minded Waiter in 1977 in which he also played the title character) and his talent shined above the rest of the cast. All of the characters get a line or two that might make you laugh depending on your sense of humor. Navin's non-stop dimwittedness takes center stage, This allows Martin to ham it up but is completely acceptable because he never stops making us laugh.
It’s not the best comedy ever produced but it is fun for an afternoon of laying in bed, rainy days, even in group settings. And if you like this one I suggest The Man With Two Brains (also directed by Carl Reiner) and Bowfinger. Yes, I realize these are both Steve Martin films that he wrote and starred in but I think he’s one of a handful of talented writers who can make fun of themselves in an entertaining fashion. I also find his comedy to be refreshingly distinctive in a Hollywood environment that keeps pumping out guzzillion-dollar Jim Carrey movies.
Navin Johnson a none-too-bright white boy raised by a family of black sharecroppers somehow manages to reach adulthood without ever discovering he was...More at Family Video
That wild and crazy guy, Steve Martin, makes his film-starring debut in the wacky comedy hit The Jerk. Steve portrays Navin Johnson, adopted son of a ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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