The Goat

A youthfully naive Buster Keaton stumbles straight into trouble once again; mistaken for an escaped murderer and instantly feared by the general public, he's pursued by several well-intentioned (but functionally inept) pavement pounding police officers. This proves to be as good an excuse as any to embark upon his usual manner of clever, resourceful physical tomfoolery; persistently dodging consequence through sheer chance and/or ingenuity. His act has often been guilty of bordering on cartoon absurdity - manipulating an elevator's floor indicator to send the whole thing through the roof, for example - but such moments of carefree indulgence are normally balanced by more a grounded human counter-balance. Less so in this case. Despite a number of frantic chase scenes, chaotic and entertaining though they may be, _The Goat_ relies too much on the silly slapstick stuff and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from Keaton's better-recognized films. It's light and silly, smoothly paced, but I didn't find much to really dig my teeth into.