Five years ago, Charlie Day began filming his directorial debut—then known as El Tonto—but as he began to sell the project and as the pandemic hit, he started to have doubts about the film. Day talked about the project with Guillermo del Toro, wrote 27 new pages, and did reshoots in 2021 with several members of the cast. This project would become Fool’s Paradise, in which Day not only writes and directs (shockingly a first for Day, considering his It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cohorts Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton have both experimented with directing in episodes of their show), but stars in this project that he’s worked on for so long. While this type of prolonged production wouldn’t necessarily be an issue—especially considering the pandemic of it all—Fool’s Paradise does feel like a collection of ideas that have been stitched together over an extended period of time, many of which aren’t saying much that we haven’t heard from other Hollywood satires.
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Day stars as a mute man who has recently been kicked out of an institution. What is wrong with this man is medically undefinable, however, he’s easily led, and is described as having the mind of a five-year-old or a Labrador retriever. He’s haplessly left on the streets of Los Angeles, but is soon picked up by a film producer (Ray Liotta), who finds the wanderer to be the spitting image of a Method actor (also Day) on the set of one of his movies that’s giving him a hard time. This mute man takes over for the actor, and despite being extremely difficult to direct, he seems to be an improvement over the obnoxious antics of the previous star. After the producer proclaims his “latte pronto!” order to anyone nearby, his name is mistakenly believed to be Latte Pronto.

Pronto catches the eye of Lenny (Ken Jeong), a failing publicist who is constantly chugging energy drinks (you know what Ken Jeong has never needed? An energy drink) and looking for someone to represent. Lenny takes “Latte” under his wing, and it isn’t long before Latte Pronto is a star, marrying his costar (Kate Beckinsale), adopting a bunch of kids, getting invited to Hollywood parties, and becoming the star of the next big superhero film, Mosquito Boy. Together, Lenny and Latte navigate the ups and downs of the Hollywood system, and in a relatively short amount of time, this silent man who was in the right place at the right time becomes a massive star with nowhere to go but down.

Image via Roadside Attractions

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The first act of Fool’s Paradise is promising, as Day plays Latte almost like a silent film star (no matter what Latte gains or loses, he always keeps a bowler hat on his head, which can’t help but remind of the writer/director/star of Charlie Chaplin), mixed with Peter Sellers’ Chance from Being There, who also managed to go from meager beginnings to the top of the world. But once we see Latte’s meteoric climb to stardom, Fool’s Paradise becomes little more than a collection of cameos, including Jason Bateman, Edie Falco, Jason Sudeikis, and plenty of It’s Always Sunny favorites. These inclusions aren’t terrible, but no one particularly stands out as humorous or really doing anything of note, except giving the audience a slight jolt when they recognize someone new within this journey.

But these cameos and awkwardly pieced together chapters wouldn’t be an issue if Fool’s Paradise had something interesting to say, but unfortunately, Day is giving us the same Hollywood satire clichés that we’ve seen in countless films. Fool’s Paradise is all about the fleeting nature of fame, the vapidity of celebrity, the chance encounters that can make a star, the difficulties of fame and fortune, and the realization that being somebody isn’t necessarily the most important thing. It’s as if we’re seeing the greatest hits of lessons learned from other films. And while Day is good as Latte Pronto, and the funniest moments in the film come from Day embracing his silent film star nature, he’s intentionally little more than a cog in this film’s exploration of Hollywood as a disposable factory, without much to latch onto as a character other than the few tidbits we learn in the opening moments. Jeong though is a nice surprise, and while he can often be a bit too much, he does give the film the closest thing it has to an emotional core, one that ends up working quite well in the third act.

Image via Roadside Attractions

It’s a shame, because Day has all the pieces for a great film, but they all don’t connect as effectively as they should. There’s a manic energy to the first third of the film, where Latte is becoming a star, which speaks to Day’s talents as a writer, and his ability to play to the craziness of any situation. But the tone shifts into something much more generic relatively quickly. The cast is solid from top to bottom, but again, they aren’t given much to work with, other than the opportunity to show up for a few days and make an appearance. As for Day as a director, he gets a few moments to show off his potential, like when Latte first takes over in a film about Billy the Kid, but once off this set, there’s little else that stands out. However, it’s hard not to be won over by Jon Brion’s gorgeous and melancholy score that highlights the highs and lows of trying to make it in Hollywood more than the film itself.

This isn’t all to say that Fool’s Paradise is a terrible film, but rather, it’s just disappointingly mundane in a way that many actors-turned-directors debut films can become. If anything, Fool’s Paradise makes you want to see more of Day, both in front of and behind the camera, We know he’s a great comedic talent as an actor and as a writer, and it would be great to see Day continue to hone his talents as a director. If Day has shown anything with Fool’s Paradise and the long road to get it made, it’s that he has passion and a vision, and a dedication to making a project that works for him. Fool’s Paradise might not work as well as it should, but fingers crossed that Day keeps at it.

Rating: C

Fool’s Paradise comes to theaters on May 12.