Who is Cletis Tout? After the first 20 minutes of the film, you have already lost interest. Chris Ver Wiel's Who Is Cletis Tout? is weak in just about every way with little to save it from cinematic purgatory. The story lacks intelligence of any form: an escaped criminal with a cockamamie scheme, Trevor Finch, takes on the identity of Cletis Tout, a dude who is wanted by the mob. Lucky for him the mobsters are inept, the police don't investigate until it's too late, and the dangerous professional hit man cares more about a good story than getting paid. The film is no doubt going for some form of quirkiness, but it is also clear that they are going for a serious meaningful angel as well - and neither works in the end.
While the general story is dumb, the dialogue and individual scenes are just as bad, complete with lame attempts at lines and moments of the heartfelt or dark variety. The look and feel of the film suffers along with the script, with Ver Wiel's lazy direction and the low-end lighting. To add insult to injury, Randy Edelman's score is incredibly cheesy and doesn't even fit the film very well.
Most of the cast don't exactly end up hitting the mark either. Christian Slater plays Finch/Tout and is a good lead, managing to make the character likable, and Billy Connolly makes a real good appearance as well. However, Portia de Rossi is as cute as a button but gives a performance that is just bad, RuPaul is gross, Richard Dreyfuss is useless, and it seems as if almost every actor playing a minor character has never acted before. I was hoping that this film would be Tim Allen's shining moment, branching out form his comedic roots to play quirky hit man Critical Jim. Well, Allen does play a hit man, but only in a marginally convincing way. He has the right attitude but the wrong delivery - when Allen is acting with body language he's great, but when he opens his mouth he manages to overdo the already trite dialogue even further. You very much want Allen to be good, and he's so close, but he doesn't quite do it. Who Is Cletis Tout?, with it's bad script, look, and majority of featured performances, is just about good enough to make a great feature for "Movie and a Makeover."