MOVIES: The Producers (Susan Stroman, 2005)

The plot hasn't lost any of its punch since Mel Brooks' original movie was released in 1968: A down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and his nebbishy accountant come up with a scheme to make a fortune by staging a show that's sure to flop; their choice, a light-hearted nostalgic musical romp called Springtime for Hitler, turns out to be a disastrously huge hit. Still, who would have expected that the stage adaptation would have become the most award-winning musical in Broadway history, or turned Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick into theatrical royalty?

And now, here's the movie version of the musical version of the movie, with Lane and Broderick re-creating their stage roles; key supporting players Roger Bart and Gary Beach are also on hand, as is director-choreographer Susan Stroman. They're joined for the movie by Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it's Stroman's first film, and she hasn't toned anything down from the stage version; it's hard to tell if this is a deliberate choice, or if she simply didn't realize how !!!LARGE!!! these theatrical-scaled performances would be on screen. Nathan Lane, in particular, is still playing to the back row of a Broadway theater, and I found myself flinching at his every gesture.

And, this being a movie, Lane and Broderick must contend with the ghosts of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in a way they didn't have to on stage; Lane's performance is just different enough to survive the comparison, but Broderick isn't so lucky. (Maybe there are simply more ways to play brash and desperate than there are to play timid and mousy.) Throughout the movie, I found myself thinking of Wilder's performance in the original, and the comparison was never to Broderick's advantage; the "I'm hysterical" scene is especially hard to watch.

But there is much that works here; Stroman's choreography is often very clever, and her dance scenes are better filmed than those in most recent musicals (though still choppier and less clear than in the classic Hollywood musicals of the 30s and 40s). The casting of supporting roles is impeccable; Ferrell's demented Nazi playwright and Thurman's Swedish bombshell secretary are hilarious. Best of all is Gary Beach as "the worst director in town," who finds himself thrown onstage unexpectedly and plays Hitler as though he were channeling Judy Garland.

And though their performances are far too big for the screen, Lane and Broderick are an undeniably effective team, getting every laugh there is to be gotten. Lane's "Betrayed," which includes a 4-minute summary of the first 90 minutes or so, is a magnificent tour de force; Broderick, though not gifted with the loveliest of voices, is nevertheless charming, and dances very well, especially in his duets with Thurman.

Very mixed feelings here; there are many fine moments, but Lane and Broderick are so over-the-top that the movie can feel like an assault. If you were thinking of going, you really should see it on a large screen, and I think you'll enjoy it; but if you weren't all that interested, I'm not going to argue very hard that you should make the effort.