Pure Luck

A remake of 1981’s La Chèvre, Pure Luck follows a private investigator (Danny Glover’s Raymond Campanella) as he’s forced to bring an accident-prone accountant (Martin Short’s Eugene Proctor) along on his quest to track down a missing heiress (Sheila Kelley’s Valerie Highsmith). It’s a decidedly broad premise that’s employed to erratic yet mostly agreeable effect by Nadia Tass, as the filmmaker, armed with Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris’ screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced comedy that benefits rather substantially from the winning work of its various performers – with Short and Glover’s frequently hilarious efforts heightened by the very obvious chemistry between their respective characters. There is, as such, little doubt that Pure Luck‘s somewhat hit-and-miss atmosphere is generally easy enough to overlook, and it’s clear, too, that the watchable vibe is perpetuated by several laugh-out-loud funny jokes and sequences (eg Eugene’s allergic reaction on board a small plane, Eugene mistakes another person for Raymond in a cafeteria, etc, etc) – which, when coupled with a fairly satisfying climax, ultimately does cement the picture’s place as an entertaining (albeit entirely forgettable) comedy that’s more agreeable than one might’ve initially anticipated.

**1/2 out of ****