Smile 2: What’s the Use of Crying

Next time your absolute favorite pop star of all time, as of this week, has a public meltdown, maybe you shouldn’t blame their history of drug abuse. Maybe they just have a case of the Smile. Where was this franchise when Lindsay Lohan could have used it as an excuse? Of course, horror fans know such is the case for Skye Riley. Newly clean and sober, Riley is on the verge of launching a comeback tour, when she suddenly witnesses something very disturbing. She must grin and bear it in director-screenwriter Parker Finn’s Smile 2, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Even though he (barely) survived to see the sequel, Joel, the cop and ex-boyfriend of last film’s main character, still has no surname. However, he fully understands the nature of what attached itself to him, so he heads to lair of a brutal drug lord to pass it onto someone deserving. This is a tense and gritty scene that justifies Kyle Gallner’s return.

Through a chaotic chain of events, the “Smile,” or whatever, latches onto a smalltime dealer, Lewis Fregoli, who happens to supply Vicodin to the on-the-wagon, but over-worked Riley (his name is also an in-joke). Inevitably, when she comes over for some Dr. House pills, she finds Fregoli in the midst of his final grinning freakout.

To follow-up to his original breakout hit film, it makes sense for Finn to focus on a celebrity like Riley, because the tabloid press will predictably magnify all her tantrums and breakdowns. Whenever the invisible entity torments her, it is embarrassingly public.

However, Finn goes too big and too crazy. Unlike the grounded visceral violence of Gallner’s prologue, Riley’s descent into madness features one conspicuous hallucination after another. Frankly, so many scenes are so clearly unreal, a good deal of viewers will likely check-out. That said, there is one nightmarish set-piece built around Riley’s Vogue-like choreography that is genuinely inspired.

There are several nice supporting turns too, particularly Rosemarie DeWitt as Riley’s Mommie Dearest. Peter Jacobson is also terrific as the mysterious Morris, who seems to understand the nature of Riley’s ordeal better than she does. Frankly, he seems like a throwback to some of the interesting supporting characters that populated the first film. It is also amusing to watch Drew Barrymore playing herself, as she interviews Riley. Weirdly, it is quite a novelty to see Barrymore in a movie these days.

Smile 2 has some effective moments, but its overall potency declines over the excessive 127-minute running time. Considering Riley is a singer, it also seems like Finn missed a golden opportunity to have her perform a macabre rendition of Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” The resulting sequel shows signs of the old sophomore slump. It is a mild case, but Smile 2 is still not consistently strong enough to recommend when it opens this Friday (10/18) in New York, including the Look W57.