Fraser’s dashing American soldier of fortune ventures to the ancient Egyptian city of the dead in this good-natured and entertainingly silly film
; as writer and director he had revived the renowned Universal Studios scary-movie brand as a fun family film in the Indiana Jones style. Arnold Vosloo had the role that Boris Karloff played in the 1930s: Imhotep, the high priest bandaged up for death by mummification on account of his treachery in ancient Egypt and accidentally brought back from the undead thousands of years later by romantic adventurers and scamps of the 20th century’s Jazz Age, seeking excitement and enlightenment in Egypt.
But our heroes are scholar and librarian Evelyn Carnahan, played by Rachel Weisz, her madcap brother Jonathan , their roguish guide Gad Hassan and, most importantly, dashing American soldier of fortune Rick O’Connell, played by the unbearably handsome young Brendan Fraser, who knows where the legendary city of the dead, Hamunaptra, is to be found. The movie became a trilogy with two more films, and was even revived with Tom Cruise in the American adventurer role.
The Mummy is cheerful, good-natured and entertaining and its cast did engagingly silly things like ride camels through the desert; though the film relies on some dodgy stereotypes, not really palatable despite the 1920s setting. It also mixed live-action and digital fabrication for set-pieces which would now naturally be entirely digital; in fact the franchise involved more and more green-screen work as it continued.
But in many ways it is impossible to look back on this film except through the poignant lens of Fraser’s own life: the injuries and illnesses brought on by doing a lot of his own stunts on the Mummy films, the deceleration of his career after the franchise ended, and his depression: an ugly and chaotic incident which as much as anything utterly discredited the HFPA and forced it to reform.
What emerges so strongly from The Mummy is the irony: Fraser’s Rick is supposed to be the wised-up tough guy who knows all the angles, whereas Weisz’s sweet ingenue and Hannah’s goofy Wodehousian chap are supposed to be the clueless ones. But it is Fraser who is the innocent: in fact, he looks almost unbearably innocent, his broad, open, handsome and lovable face is boyish, even babyish. The Mummy wouldn’t have been a hit without him.
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