The Freshman

Let's face it: any movie that features a Komodo dragon on a pet leash is going to generate some interest. Fortunately, The Freshman has a whole lot more going for it. Written and directed by Andrew Bergman, the film stars Matthew Broderick as Clark Kellogg, a naive film student who moves to New York and is ripped off within twenty minutes of arriving. Seeing the thief the following day, Clark gives chase, only to be offered a proposition by the hustler: would Clark like to work for his uncle? When Clark meets the "uncle," one Carmine Sabatini (Marlon Brando), he cannot help but notice a marked resemblance to a memorable film character. Of course, Brando's Sabatini is Don Corleone resurrected--with a wonderful offbeat spin added to his persona. Clark takes the job as a driver, and his first delivery turns out to be a Komodo dragon, which he and a fellow film student manage to lose in a mall, causing understandable havoc amongst the shoppers. When Clark discovers that the Komodo dragon is an endangered species, and he's delivered one of the last eight to a chef, things start getting really weird. Besides the obvious treat of seeing Brando in his first starring role in a decade, The Freshman offers a consistently refreshing sense of humor, and some nice moments of satire on the Big Apple, the Mafia, and the filthy rich. Recommended. (R. Pitman)