First you have a story about a fledgling music manager seeking redemption both personally and professionally. Then you get the tale of a young woman trying to break barriers by becoming the first female contestant on the Afghan equivalent of “American Idol.”
The two are mashed together in Rock the Kasbah, an uneven if well-intentioned comedy from veteran director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) that squanders the efforts of Bill Murray and a talented ensemble cast.
Murray plays Richie, a hipster Hollywood talent agent whose career desperation causes him to sign up for a goodwill tour in Afghanistan with a lounge singer (Zooey Deschanel) who doesn’t share his enthusiasm.
She bolts and leaves Richie stranded while awaiting a new passport in Kabul, where he finds some fellow Americans including a hooker (Kate Hudson) and an assassin (Bruce Willis) willing to keep him out of danger amid the wartime conflict.
However, he finds hope when he hears Salima (Leem Lubany) secretly belting out Cat Stevens covers in a cave. Seizing an opportunity for both of them, Richie makes a deal to get Salima on “Afghan Star” against the wishes of her conservative father, who realizes that such an appearance violates traditional gender roles.
Murray conveys an offbeat charm with a character whose amusing outlook on life mixes cynicism and optimism, even if it’s far-fetched that he would wind up as an anti-oppression crusader in the Middle East. Still, the film would have been better off focusing on either Richie or Salima more exclusively, rather than tying them together.
The screenplay by Mitch Glazer (Scrooged) — part of which was inspired by the actual tale of a pioneering female Afghan singer — has a solid premise and some quirky supporting characters to work with, but it’s not consistently funny nor is it sufficiently grounded in reality for the more heartwarming finale to resonate.
The notion that music bridges cultures is treated with half-hearted sincerity, and it doesn’t offer much behind-the-scenes insight into how the music industry actually works. Despite some scattered laughs, the film has a choppy, improvised feeling without much subtlety or surprise.
Rock the Kasbah (which makes no reference to The Clash’s single of the same name, by the way) is like a song that just doesn’t come together — it’s like a handful of disjointed sounds that never find the right rhythm or harmony.
