Alternate Best Actor 1979: Steve Martin in The Jerk

Steve Martin did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Navin R. Johnson in The Jerk.

 

The Jerk is an enjoyably dumb comedy about a jerk going through life. 

 

The Jerk marked Steve Martin's successful breakout from stand-up comedian, who occasionally cameod in films, to a full-on movie star. This is an interesting film to look at in terms of Steve Martin's later more expected presence which was a more white-collarish jerk, where he played a distinctly blue-collar jerk. Although more importantly than that, Martin later would play an intelligent man where the comedy of his work came from that in some context, particularly the idea as the smartest man in the room one way or another. This is the opposite as his Navin R. Johnson is always the dumbest man in the room right when we seem to see him in his sharecropper roots. Martin's accent he uses here I think is perhaps the greatest risk of this performance, which is really on a certain tight rope of goofiness, to begin with, and is rather wonderful in just how dumb his voice is. It isn't quite a southern accent, instead, it is best described as a stupid accent, a very stupid accent that manages to be hilarious in its odd dumbness. His way of not quite being anything that makes sense just makes for perfect sense in creating a strangely endearing kind of dumb for his Navin as we see him move from his rural life to find his fortune. 

What this performance then becomes is this series of Martin being funny as a complete idiot and getting into ridiculous situations often due to Navin's idiocy or by mere happenstance. Martin's work here is pure in the sense of him just trying to be as funny as possible with his overly earnest delivery which might be the key to his portrayal of Navin as the jerk. This as Martin is kind of everything you'd want in this performance, as there is the right lack of awareness that Martin brings as the fool. A kind of essential ingredient that is interesting to see upon reflection given Martin would be known for smarter seeming characters. Martin's approach wholly works in his foolishness because there's just something pure about his smile that suggests little to few thoughts of Navin as he first finds work at a car garage. A place where we get great comedic timing from Martin whether it be his hapless reactions to his boss (Jackie Mason)'s strange advice, or his physical comedy goes around with a sort of incompetence. That run of his alone is needed for a bit of analysis for comedy. It is just the right kind of dumb, natural unnatural dumbness. It is too much, but also not too much. A highlight of Martin's approach perhaps finding his closet apartment where the excitement in his voice and wonder in his eyes as he looks at the dingy place is hilarious because Martin is too much, but there is something strangely authentic about it as well. He makes it that Navin is a ridiculous fool, but in that foolishness, his delight at his crappy apartment is 100% true. 

I think a great example of just this is when we see him find two very different lovers one a rough-around-the-edges stunt woman and the other a sweet woman, Marie (Bernadette Peters). With the latter, there is a scene of the two talking that is hilarious as Martin shows Navin's particular ineptness that Marie for whatever reason finds absolutely endearing. The thing is it is endearing because of the pitch-perfect nature of Martin's performance. Martin says completely stupid lines like asking Marie to think of her boyfriend when making love to him, but he says them with this sort of boyish honesty that makes it so funny. The film's romance itself is really dumb, right to an initial kiss of Navin's being licking Marie, which Martin does in such stride, which is also what is so funny. Martin shows the key of trying not to be funny is often the key to hilariousness and here we get kind of a great mix of trying to be funny, while also being funny, and trying not to be funny and being funny. Martin knows how to fluctuate his performance from going all in, such as the silly way he evokes Bruce Lee in a sudden battle with racists, or his quiet "seriousness" when a lost soul is forgotten by society. Both are Martin throwing all of himself in from the strict conviction of a battle stance as a fighter to a dumb saunter of the loathsome creature attempting redemption. Martin's work here has no higher purpose here, but he does not need it. This is just Martin being funny, by so purely being this idiot, and doing so in a way that is truly delightful in its idiotic ways.