By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 13, 1998

John Goodman gives 'The Borrowers' adult appeal

Photo courtesy of Polygram Films Arizona Daily Wildcat Here's to the little people: Ocious P. Potter (John Goodman) bids a less than fond farewell to those meddlesome Borrowers.

Put yourself in John Goodman's shoes for a minute.

You've had great success in television, been nominated multiple times for Emmys for your work on "Roseanne" - which won you a Golden Globe - and for two critically acclaimed made-for-television movies, "Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long" and "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Alas, your highest grossing motion picture to date is "The Flintstones," which made $130 million dollars domestically.

Most aren't quick to point out your Golden Globe-nominated role in Barton Fink, the work you did in "Raising Arizona," or your turns in forgotten-for-some-reason films like "The Babe" and "Born Yesterday."

In the movie that the most people saw you in, you were wearing an orange frock and drove a car with your feet. That's got to be tough to deal with.

So what do you do? You go back and make another kids' film and hope for the best.

Fortunately, with your, er, Goodman's new film "The Borrowers," it all works out.

Goodman is one of the most underrated actors working today and it's a shame most people don't recognize his talent. If you're among the unbelievers, go see "The Borrowers," from British director Peter Hewitt (whose biggest previous credit is "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey").

"The Borrowers" is based on a series of books by Mary Norton. The first was published in 1952, and the series continued until the 1980s.

The Borrowers themselves are little people (very little - like mouse sized) who live in a house with normal-sized humans and survive, thanks to the use of objects they steal from around the house. If you've ever lost a sock, your keys or a pen, chalk it up to the Borrowers. Your pen may be being used as a foot bridge, your sock as a bed.

Goodman is Ocious P. Potter, an evil real estate agent trying to knock down the house after its owner dies, so he can put up a series of luxury apartments. Naturally, the Borrowers have something to say about it because it's their home too.

The special effects used to create "The Borrowers" gives you a weird "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" feeling, but this film is nowhere near as cheesy. A majority of the shots are of the Borrowers working in a scene with oversized objects, so you don't get those nasty effects you can tell have been superimposed.

As the little people and their friend Peter Lender (get it? Borrower, Lender) plot to foil the nefarious Mr. Potter, the jokes get physical and a little bit "Home Alone." It's okay, though - you'll work through it because you don't have to put up with Macaulay Culkin. You would think that physical comedy like this gets old after awhile - Potter gets bit, stabbed with a fork, electrocuted and has a run-in with gallons of liquefied cheese - but even if it's against your better judgment, it continues to make you laugh every time.

Being a British film, there aren't many actors you can count on recognizing right off the bat. Jim Broadbent (The Crying Game) gives a good performance as Pod Clock, the patriarch of the Borrowers clan. Mark Williams and Hugh Laurie, who played the henchmen in "101 Dalmatians" are also on hand. You also get a pretty funny cameo appearance by Ruby Wax as the town clerk. Wax hosted a television series on Fox over the summer, where she hung out with different celebrities, but you'd probably only know that if your life was as non-existent as mine.

"The Borrowers" was released overseas late last year and has been doing pretty steady business at the box office. Now if only Goodman could get some Americans out to see his films.