THE CLAPPER – Review

Ed Helm (center, with hat) as Eddie and Tracy Morgan (to right) as Chris, in THE CLAPPER. Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures ©

THE CLAPPER is an indie film about a different side of Hollywood, a kind of romantic comedy about an anonymous worker in Los Angeles who ekes out a living as a paid face in the crowd for audiences for infomercials. It is a job kind of like a movie extra but ranked much lower, as clappers are impersonating ordinary people in audiences in advertisements impersonating television programs. Clappers are part of the background that creates the illusion that producers are selling to their real audience.

Director Dito Montiel adapted the script from his novel “Eddie Krumble is the Clapper,” his second book after “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” which was also made into an indie film.. The story is semi-autobiographical, based on Montiel’s experiences after moving to L.A. and making living on Hollywood’s edge.

Eddie Krumble (Ed Helms) and his best friend Chris Plork (Tracy Morgan) are clappers, paid professional audience members for infomercials and other low-end shows needing a live studio audience but not popular enough to draw one from tourists and fans. The programs pay the clappers to look like ordinary people as they enthusiastically respond to the claims of infomercial hawker/hosts promoting whatever product they are pitching. Whether the program is promoting a real estate investment or a new kitchen gadget, clappers are amazed, delighted or cheering on cue. It is low-pay work on the lowest rung of the industry, paid by the gig with a little extra if the clapper is cast to ask a scripted question. The most essential qualification for the job is to look ordinary and to be unknown.

Eddie Krumble certainly fits that qualification. When the widowed Eddie moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start, he may have had some idea about acting but he has no such plans now. Still, Eddie is sincere about his work, taking care with his various disguises and practicing his lines in front of a mirror. He actually likes the low-key quirky job he fell into, although he would like to make a little more money doing it. He is pretty settled in his unambitious life, taking gigs as a clapper, hanging out with his pal Chris, and flirting with the pretty cashier at the local gas station, Judy (Amanda Seyfried).

But Eddie’s low-key life is disrupted when a notoriously mean late night talk show host, Jayme Stillerman (Russell Peters), spots him in the audience of several infomercials, and singles him and his job out for a routine of comic ridicule. The segment captures the public’s attention and turns into a pop culture craze, which as the host and his producer (Adam Levine) build with a media campaign to hunt for “the clapper.” While most people in L.A. would eagerly embrace this 15 minutes of fame, Eddie is horrified because becoming famous could cost him his livelihood. Eddie’s quiet life turns into a nightmare, as he is shoved into this unwelcome spotlight. .As the talk show stunt continues, it threatens Eddie’s budding romance with Judy as well as his job.

The cast is rounded out with Brenda Vaccaro as Eddie’s overbearing mother, who calls constantly from back home, and real infomercial hosts Wendy Braun and Billy Blanks, plus the late Alan Thicke as infomercial pitchmen.

There is a certain charm in this tale of people on the economic margins of L.A., although some viewers may disdain their lack of ambition. One wonders at first if the film will mock this unambitious man with the laughably odd occupation but director Montiel treats him with surprising sympathy. That view likely comes out of the semi-autobiographical nature of the source material, as Montiel based the story on his and a friend’s experience living on the lowest levels of Hollywood, where his friend worked as a clapper. There certainly is plenty that is laughable about being a clapper but the ridicule comes later when Eddie and his strange job become fodder for the talk show host. There is a classic good guy – bad guy thing in this film, and Montiel’s sympathy is with the kind-hearted underdogs getting by on the margins rather than the ambitious and ruthless types with the successful talk show.

Even before Eddie comes under that harsh gaze, there is a sense he is hiding. Unlike countless would-be actors, Eddie did not move across the country to L. A. to seek stardom. It is an odd choice for a fresh start, one which is never explained, but his weird job seems to give him a kind of self-expression he wouldn’t get as a cashier at Walmart, or as a gas station attendant like Judy.

In his comments on his film, director Montiel noted how people are drawn to Los Angeles by the myth of Hollywood, only to find living there very different from the dream. He was also struck by “what a blue-collar town Hollywood really is,” with many more people working as extras, carpenters, market researchers, and in other un-glamorous occupations than movie stars and studio heads. Some of the jobs are really odd – like professional audience members.

If you are expecting a biting satire on Hollywood, an in-depth exploration of an odd-ball profession, or a psychological study, you won’t get that with THE CLAPPER. Although it starts down all those roads, it then detours into a standard romantic comedy. It is too bad because while that makes an interesting backdrop for a rom com, the film leaves a lot of potentially more interesting and unique material unused.

Still, THE CLAPPER does have a certain charm, particularly in Ed Helms’ low-key, even sweet performance as a guy who likes his strange job and would rather just be left alone. The film raises a lot of questions with this character, like why he moved to Los Angeles, without really answering them, but Helms does what he can to suggest answers. Tracy Morgan likewise turns in a n unexpectedly restrained performance as Eddie’s loyal friend but whose lack of sophistication makes him easy prey for Adam Levine’s calculating producer.

While Eddie has no ambitions, Amanda Seyfried’s tender-hearted Judy does have one, to open an animal shelter in Mexico, for the discarded and damaged animals like the one-horned goat she adopted. That she has a goal, something the drifting Eddie lacks, may be part of the attraction. However, we do not find out because (and here is where the film goes wrong) the film once again does not delve into Eddie’s inner life. Instead, the film transforms into just romantic comedy, one that does not go beneath the surface of any of the characters. While there is a sweetness to the ending, one is left with a sense there could have been something more.

THE CLAPPER is not a film for everyone. It is a small film that has some charm as a sweet oddball rom com but which falls short in exploring its characters. However, someone expecting a raucous comedy laughing at losers scraping by at the bottom of Hollywood’s food chain won’t find that in this film.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars