If you see a lot of movies, you'll know that previews and commercials are often misleading. In certain ways, that's good, as no one wants to know all of the plot twists before they see a film, but often it's bad. You go to the theater expecting one type of flick and end up getting something very different. What Planet Are You From?, the new Mike Nichols' movie starring Garry Shandling (Larry Sanders Show), unfortunately falls into the latter category.

The commercials for Planet make it seem like an uproarious comedy. Shandling plays an alien named Harold Anderson who's sent to earth to procreate but instead is just as bewildered by women as most earth men are. It's a cute idea for portraying the ongoing battle of the sexes, and Shandling's miscues look hilarious in small bits. But Planet isn't really a comedy. Yes, there are some comic moments, but the real focus of the film is Shandling's mushy transformation from sex-on-the-brain alien to warm-and-loving earth man.

The film begins with a genuinely funny introduction to Anderson's alien world. Using a campy, ominous score and ripping off the famous moving words from Star Wars, director Mike Nichols (The Graduate) sets the stage for what should be belly laughs. This continues with Anderson's schooling. He's being sent to Earth to conceive a child, so that the aliens can "conquer Earth from the inside." To help him, he's trained in the art of seduction: "Compliment a woman on these areas [hair, eyes, legs], tell her that her footwear is fashionable, pretend you're listening to her by repeating uh huh..." While these jokes are somewhat misogynistic, they're also cleverly dead-pan and humorous.

But once Shandling gets to earth, his pick-up lines seem forced and progressively uglier. His exaggerated portrayal of a man on the prowl is too obvious to be very funny, and the movie's depictions of his potential marks are mean-spirited: stupid airline attendants, secretaries on the make, and prostitutes. If men (via Shandling) come off looking stupid and insensitive, women fare even worse.

The film's humor crawls even lower when Anderson's genitalia enter the picture. Since his planet has evolved past the need for sexual reproduction, he needs to have a prosthetic penis installed. Unfortunately for Harold, it hums when he's aroused. This joke isn't funny the first time it's trotted out, and it descends to the level of desperation the eighth time around.

Fortunately, it's around this time when the movie abandons the comedy element and instead gets romantic. Anderson meets Susan, played by Annette Bening (American Beauty), at an AA meeting (he's there trolling for mates). Her neediness and desire for a child matches perfectly with his agenda, and they soon find themselves married. But as you can imagine, it's a rocky road from there. Susan thinks she's gotten a sensitive man for a husband, only to find out that he doesn't even care about her once she's pregnant. While their relationship is both unrealistic and stereotypical (a hard combination, admittedly), I suspect many audience members may see themselves in certain of its aspects.

While all this is going on, Roland Jones, an FAA investigator played by John Goodman, is tracking Harold down. Roland is convinced he's an alien and spends much of the movie stalking him. This eventually forces Anderson into a crisis decision: will he stick out his marriage or flee back to his home planet? No prize for guessing the right answer.

The script, by Garry Shandling and three others, may be all over the map, never fulfilling the promise of its premise, but the acting in Planet is pretty good. Shandling brings his typical dry, bemused expression to everything he does, and this performance is no different. But Bening takes a difficult character and gives it life. Though she's playing another hysterical female, here she's able to transform Susan into someone the audience cares about. A particularly nice example occurs when she announces to Harold that she's pregnant. Singing "High Hopes" ("oops, there goes another rubber tree plant"), Bening conveys a vulnerability that leaps off the screen and makes us care about this marriage.

John Goodman is also strong in a difficult part. He uses his huge frame for comic effect, and his fixation on the alien is strangely believable. And Ben Kingsley as the head of the alien planet is nicely stoic. Only Greg Kinnear as a despicable co-worker fares poorly, though that has much more to do with the script than his ability.

Though Mike Nichols hasn't made a truly great movie in some time, it's still disappointing that he can't create something better than this. Not that Planet is a terrible movie, but it's not a successful one. The humor works only sporadically, and the romance descends into mushy sentimentalism. Even the striking use of desert scenery and some interesting wide-angle shots only serve to remind the audience of what could've been, rather than what we actually get. 

J. Robert Parks 2/28/2000