Will Ferrell makes foolish people funny by taking their wishes seriously. We like him most when that commitment reveals a little innocence; his louder performances wear thin when the jokes stop developing.
Fi1m perspective
In Strays (2023), Will Ferrell's Reggie thinks his owner's attempts to abandon him are a game. Ferrell gives the terrier such trusting enthusiasm that the stupidity never feels like an excuse to despise him. We rate that earnestness more highly than the shouting, though both have become familiar parts of his work. He makes a foolish character's immediate wish matter, even when the film has little else to offer.
He plays Mugatu in Zoolander (2001), a comedy whose performances make its flimsy conspiracy plot worth tolerating. The lead in Elf (2003) made the innocent outsider central to his film persona. With writer-director Adam McKay, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) put his comic timing and full commitment to absurdity to work. Stranger than Fiction (2006) also gave him room for dramatic acting, though broad comedy remained his main business.
The innocence survives in his voice work, but it does not supply a whole script. In Josh Greenbaum's Strays, Jamie Foxx gives Bug a brisk authority and gets most of the better lines, while Ferrell keeps Reggie open-hearted. The contrast suits a story that asks its sweetest dog to contemplate something appalling. It is funny for about forty minutes; after that, the repeated jokes become hard work, and Ferrell's sincerity cannot make them new.
His Maxime Le Mal in Despicable Me 4 (2024) is less rewarding. A villain proud of having fused himself with a cockroach is a workable absurdity; Ferrell mostly gets a thick French accent and a succession of shouted lines. The joke works about half the time. We laughed when he and Steve Carell bellowed a pop song at each other: having someone answer him made the noise funny.
He is worth casting for the tenderness. Without it, he can end up working hard on a joke that was tired several scenes ago. For an evening of determined stupidity, choose Zoolander; neither of those later voice roles is enough reason to choose the film.
Biography
Will Ferrell is an American actor and comedian. Born on 16 July 1967 in Irvine, California, he graduated from the University of Southern California and trained with the Los Angeles improv group the Groundlings before joining the cast of the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1995, remaining until 2002.
He has starred in comedy films including Elf (2003), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Step Brothers (2008) and Barbie (2023). He voiced Reggie in Strays (2023) and Maxime in Despicable Me 4 (2024).
In 2007 Ferrell co-founded the comedy website Funny or Die with Adam McKay. He received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2011 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015.
