Buddy

[1997, Movie]

Buddy: Review

An adaptation of eccentric animal-lover Gertrude Lintz's (played engagingly by Rene Russo) memoir Animals Are My Hobby, which chronicles the willful, flapper-era heiress' attempts to raise a gaggle of animals -- notoriously intransigent chimpanzees included -- as though they were children. Adults will find the story a bit thin, but they're not the intended audience, to judge by the fairy-tale production design. The movie's heart lies in the deep bond between Lintz and her favorite gorilla, Buddy, and while director Caroline Thompson gives an entertaining, if predictable, spin to the themes of maternal manipulation and childish rebelliousness (with a bit of the old Oedipus complex tossed in for good measure), she chooses to ignore the darker aspects of Lintz's obsessive love of animals. Many pet owners will see nothing untoward in Lintz's penchant for dressing up her chimps and gorillas, but her delight when the wayward Buddy escapes his cage, invades her lingerie drawer and waltzes around with her slinky red nightie has overtones that are -- to say the least -- a bit odd. Supporting players Robbie Coltrane, Alan Cumming and Irma P. Hall aren't given much, other than expressing consternation over the same unpredictable simian exploits that should delight kids, even if big, naughty Buddy is a clever hybrid of animatronic magic and man-in-a-suit trickery.