Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(Published Sunday, April 24, 2005 - Reviewed by Alex Meehan)

As starts to the day go, it's not a good one. Arthur Dent wakes up to find bulldozers are about to demolish his house, and his best friend is not actually from Guildford, but rather from a distant star known as Betelgeuse.

Things only get worse for Arthur (Martin Freeman), the everyman hero of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when the Earth is demolished by aliens to make way for a hyperspace bypass. One quick hitchhiking session later, Arthur and best friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) are adventuring around the galaxy in a film which is equal parts slapstick comedy, half-baked philosophy and 1980s retro science fiction.

Joining them on the trip are the two-headed delinquent president of the Galaxy, Zaphod Breeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), and Trillian MacMillan (Zooey Deschanel), Arthur's love interest, as well as planet engineer Slartibartfarst (Bill Nighy) and Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Twenty years in the making, Hitchhiker's Guide is a funny film, and a lot more besides. As the adored life's work of the late Douglas Adams, the story has been through several incarnations – from radio play to computer game to television series, as well as, most notably, a bestselling series of five books. A lot is expected of this latest incarnation – and director Garth Jenning's feature debut – from the millions of Hitchhiker's fans around the world. The complicated story sees Arthur Dent adventuring around the universe on a spaceship powered by an infinite improbability drive, visiting obscure and unlikely planets and eventually finding the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything.
As he comes to terms with the universe, he consults the electronic book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which has the helpful phrase ‘Don't Panic!’ on its cover. Along the way, Arthur wins the heart of the only other human left alive, Trillian MacMillan.

Early in the film, his indecisiveness sees him lose Trillian at a party, when she is whisked away by the windswept and interesting Zaphod using his tried and trusted line “I'm from a different planet. Would you like to see my spaceship?”

Hitchhiker's features its fair share of effects-driven space sequences, but the look of the film is reassuringly old school. Jim Henson's Creature Shop is responsible for the disgusting seven-foot alien Vogons, and the majority of filming took place on real sets. The result is a stylish yet retro movie that can stand alone but feels true to the spirit of the books.

Hitchhiker's features very English humour, and despite being made in the US the movie retains this regional feel. The narrative is interrupted by short extracts from the Guide itself, voiced by Stephen Fry. Martin Freeman, best known for his role as put-upon stationery salesman Tim in The Office, turns in a good performance as Dent. Alan Rickman provides the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android, while John Malkovich is the creepy Humma Kavula.

While it has its flaws, Hitchhiker's is that rarest of things – a truly unusual and funny film that will have mass-market appeal. It delivers a good story, doesn't take itself too seriously and owes more to Monty Python and Austin Powers than it does to serious sci-fi. One for the whole family.

Rating: ****

(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, directed by Garth Jennings, at cinemas nationwide from April 29. )