The Great Buck Howard is an enjoyable film, with John Malkovick playing the title character to a delightfully eccentric extent, but not the lead. Colin Hanks plays the lead, a he is a confused law school drop who ends up becoming the personal assistant to Buck Howard, a mentalist whose moment of fame came during the Johnny Carson era on the Tonight Show. Colin's character spends most of his time being enamored with Buck's aura.
The film follows the two as they travel to various minor cities across the USA in hopes of Buck landing it big again. The film is enjoyable because of characters, the story constructed and unfolds in a fairly traditional manner but Malkovick, Emily Blunt, and Steve Zahn make the entire event worthwhile.
The only issues with the film are that writer-director Sean McGinly is a little too much like Colin's character, Buck seems like an enigma even to him. The story unfolds without letting the viewer get to know Buck, he remains a fairly distance character. The viewer likes and roots for Buck, but it is purely through the eyes of his personal assistant and not on our own. McGinly created a fun film with interesting characters but decided not to examine the story with the depth he could have.
The Great Buck Howard was an enjoyable movie but it missed it chance at being much more.
