Bedazzled Review

NEW YORK -- At 31, Brendan Fraser is finally and miraculously outliving the embarrassment of being a doltish caveman in Encino Man, a Tarzan doofus in George Of The Jungle and a bumbling Canadian Mountie in Dudley Do-Right.

In Harold Ramis's funny Bedazzled -- which 20th Century-Fox officials are convinced will be one of the fall's biggest hits -- Fraser gets to be a bumbler, a doofus and a dolt all over again as he plays a series of distinct loser characters.

But the hybrid Canadian-American star -- he was born in the U.S. to Canadian parents and raised in the U.S., Canada and Holland -- elevates the nuttiness to a sophisticated level. He does it just when his career is surging and reviews are glowing.

Yet Fraser is trying to remain the same soft-spoken, sweetly mannered, gentle giant he has always been.

"Sometimes," Fraser offers in explaining how to stay level-headed, "I don't trust the praise and I don't believe the criticism." Otherwise, he adds, "You could drive yourself mad."

Nor does Fraser admit to feeling underappreciated, despite the sarcasm generated by some of his past mainstream roles.

"Nooooo!" he says with an emphatic spin. "I have so much satisfaction in my life. I have a beautiful wife (former actress Afton Smith, 33) and the great stimulation of an interesting career. I have a lot to live for and a lot to be thankful for. I'm the most happy fellow that I know."

Bedazzled, which opened this weekend to upbeat reviews, is Ramis's remake of the 1967 Dudley Moore & Peter Cook comedy classic Bedazzled. Fraser was cast in the Moore role, although the character was updated from a short-order cook to a nerdish computer technician.

Meanwhile, a vampish Elizabeth Hurley chews up scenery in the plum Cook role as The Devil, transforming the movie into a sexually supercharged farce. As The Devil, she strikes a Faustian bargain with Fraser, offering him seven wishes in return for his willingness to sign away rights to his soul.

Each wish catapults Fraser into a bizarre new life -- and a different character -- whether it's as a Colombian drug lord or a superstar basketball player. And each wish goes terribly awry, of course, in the most amusing ways.

Above all, says Fraser, Bedazzled is a moral tale: "It's about a man who in the end becomes enlightened -- his trial's by fire." He calls Ramis "the Buddha of comedy."

Fraser found it easy to say yes to the role, which was sandwiched between the surprise success of the re-make of The Mummy and the just-completed filming of the sequel of that adventure-horror movie, The Mummy Returns.

"The opportunity to be all those vastly differently characters was a choice that I just couldn't refuse," Fraser says of Bedazzled.

"And they're delightfully, devilishly, good fun."

As for his career surge, The Mummy sequel guarantees Fraser another hit movie. In January, he will shoot something serious, Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American, which is based on a Graham Greene novel and co-stars Michael Caine.

Then he is off to London's West End for Tony Award-winning director Anthony Page's revival of the Tennessee Williams classic Cat On A Hot Tin Roof . Fraser plays Brick, and his Maggie will be Frances O'Connor, who just happens to be his unattainable love interest in Bedazzled.

"She is striking and interesting and funny and serious and, to my eyes, a well-rounded actress," he says of her. "I'm glad to have had to chance to work with her. I cast my vote for her."

Meanwhile, his own double-header means he will be taking a crash course on American foreign policy of the early 1950s for The Quiet American and then immersing himself in Southern culture for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

"I have my work cut out for me," Fraser muses happily.

Bedazzled star moves beyond those bumbling doofus roles