Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
If there’s one brand of comedy some can enjoy, it’s the pot-comedy of films like “Up in Smoke” starring Cheech and Chong, “Half-Baked” or even stoner comedies like “The Stoned Age” or Richard Linklater’s masterpiece “Dazed & Confused”. What makes a stoner comedy funny isn’t about people getting high on marijuana, but their reaction to it and how it’s presented is important to making a good stoner comedy. The indie-cult comedy troupe Broken Lizard gained a following for their movies like “Puddle Cruiser” and the cult-classic “Super Troopers”. In 1998, respected television director Stephen Gyllenhaal (yes, the father of indie-stars Jake and Maggie) decided to tackle on the stoner comedy genre but in an unsatisfying way with the film “Homegrown”.
Directed by Gyllenhaal based on his script with writers Jonah Raskin and Nicolas Kazan, “Homegrown” is about three stoners trying to protect their crop in the woods of California where they see their boss killed during an upcoming business meeting. The trio panic as they gather friends from their local town to sell their marijuana crop to anyone interested that includes a millionaire, the Mafia, and the authorities as well who want to stop the sales of marijuana. Along the way, greed, mistrust, and stupidity get everything in trouble as the trio loses insight of everything that matters. While the story might seem like an interesting stoner comedy, what fails is that it tries to be funny and serious at the same time and as a result, it’s a very messy film. Despite a superb ensemble cast, “Homegrown” fails to deliver as a well-done stoner comedy.
The film begins with marijuana boss Malcolm Stockman (John Lithgow) is going to the woods of Northern California to meet with his three employees about their growing marijuana crop. Leading the trio is the intelligent Jack Marsden (Billy Bob Thorton) who is trying to protect the crop from authorities or anyone with help from his mullet-style friend Carter (Hank Azaria) and their young, paranoid pal Harlan (Ryan Phillippe). They see a helicopter flying down near their crop that belonged to Malcolm but Malcolm is suddenly shot by the pilot (Jon Tenney) as everything begins to panic. Carter and Harlan are going nuts over what happens as Jack decides to meet up with another friend and store some of the crop in her house.
They go to Carter’s on-off girlfriend Lucy (Kelly Lynch) for help as she helps them hide the crop but she keeps asking about Malcolm where Jack tells her that he fled for Hawaii. Jack has a number for emergency, which belongs to Malcolm’s twin brother Richard, but they couldn’t reach him at the moment. Lucy helps them hide as she tries to seduce Harlan while Carter and Jack meet up with a town millionaire Danny (Jon Bon Jovi) who is interested in buying their crop. Jack comes up with an idea to hire some town people and make money off of the crop they have in the woods but Lucy isn’t sure if Malcolm would like the idea.
Jack, Carter, and Harlan get help from the town including a new guy named Ben (Matt Ross) who accidentally stumbles in the woods as he is forced to help them as Jack suspects something about him. Jack meanwhile, goes to Malcolm’s house to handle business including with a mob boss named Gianni (Ted Danson) while Carter is trying to get some protection from a corrupt cop (Judge Reinhold). Lucy meanwhile finally seduces Harlan into getting information as she learned that Malcolm is dead and wants a bigger cut of the crop they’re selling. Jack gives her a bigger cut to Carter’s dismay after he learned that she slept with Harlan.
Jack, Carter, and Lucy go to an annual party where Jack meets up with local musician Sierra Kazan (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is hosting the party with her family (one of her sons is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, although you don’t really see him). Sierra asks about Malcolm as Jack is trying to make sure that things for her family are fine and will handle things about Malcolm. Jack becomes the most responsible of the gang as he tries to handle the businesses with Danny and Gianni while trying to contact Richard. Things however, go wrong when Jack learns Ben has ratted them out to the feds as a gunfight ensues between the authorities and the stoners as Harlan saves Jack by shooting Ben.
Harlan and Carter becomes paranoid as Jack is trying to see what’s going on as he just got tipped off by a babysitter named Christina (Maggie Gyllenhaal) about feds busting the town over marijuana. Jack decides it’s time to get busy and make a deal with Gianni. The deal doesn’t go well at first until Jack decides to give them the entire crop for a very reasonable deal as Gianni is satisfied. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go well later when they encounter the pilot, who works for Gianni, as Lucy, Harlan, Jack, and Carter are forced to reveal Malcolm’s body and Richard finally arrives to tell them not to sell anything. Jack decides to make a deal with Danny but trouble arises as the town wants the crop also as everything falls apart.
What makes “Homegrown” a failure as a stoner comedy wasn’t in its presentation but the way it was marketed in its trailer. The trailer in the DVD revealed it to be something funny but when it’s revealed as a film, it’s a thriller-comedy that just fails to be funny or to try to be very serious. Though the Gyllenhaals (including wife, mother, and screenwriter Naomi Foner, who serves as an executive producer in this film) are known, by the film community, as political activists for liberal causes (some I don’t necessarily agree with and if I ever around them on some political thing, I’ll be saying stuff like “hippies” and “treehuggers” to them since I’m not really into politics). Stephen Gyllenhaal tried to bring political aspects to the possible legalization of marijuana but no stoner comedy fan would care about politics. They want laughs and there aren’t a lot of laughs to offer. “Homegrown” just messes things up for too many flat jokes that Broken Lizard could get away with and its attempt to be serious.
Billy Bob Thorton is easily the film’s best performance as the more responsible individual while being a stoner at heart. Thorton captured a wit and coolness in his performance as he tries to get everyone to calm down. Kelly Lynch does a very good performance as a seductress while being the only intelligent foil to Thorton’s character. Hank Azaria has a few moments in the film but stumbles a lot while Ryan Phillippe just has too many moments of paranoia and is really just in the film to look pretty (Brad Pitt may have been pretty but he at least, can act and was an excellent stoner in “True Romance”). The small performances of Lithgow, Bon Jovi, Curtis, Tenney, and Danson are fun to watch but are so underused, particularly Curtis and Lithgow who both, could’ve been used more. And there is really nothing to say about Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performances, since they’re so brief and Maggie has stated that she did those movies with her dad not just to see him but also to craft herself as an actress. Again, there’s nothing to say about the siblings in comparison to their roles in “Donnie Darko”, “Secretary”, “Cecil B. Demented” or “The Good Girl”.
“Homegrown” is just a messy stoner comedy that just took itself too seriously. Even the average stoner fan wouldn’t want to watch this. Gyllenhaalics though will find this film disappointing although it’s really the work of Stephen Gyllenhaal. Though some will enjoy the performances of Thorton, Lynch, Lithgow, Curtis, and Bon Jovi, it’s not enough to save this film. With a messy script and mediocre direction, “Homegrown” is just a failure for trying to be funny and political. In the end, just watch other stoner comedies, even the lowbrow ones.
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