The Pink Panther (2006 film)

Plot

Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus narrates a flashback of a football match between France and China. French coach Yves Gluant enters the stadium, wearing the Pink Panther diamond ring, which is seen by his team as a symbol of pride and victory. He kisses his girlfriend, pop star Xania, and whispers something to her. After France wins the game in sudden death, Gluant is killed by a poison dart, with the Pink Panther diamond nowhere to be found.

Eager to win the Medal of Honour, Dreyfus promotes a clumsy small-town policeman and "village idiot", Jacques Clouseau, to the rank of Inspector and assigns him to the Pink Panther case. Dreyfus simultaneously assembles a secret team of top investigators to crack the case, allowing Clouseau to serve as the public face of the investigation and draw all the media attention. Dreyfus assigns Gilbert Ponton to be Clouseau's assistant, instructing him to keep him informed of Clouseau's actions. Despite his orders, Ponton quickly befriends Clouseau, as Clouseau attempts to solve the case by looking for clues and interviewing people close to Gluant, though not without being clumsy and foolish during his work. All throughout this, Clouseau also works alongside secretary Nicole Durant, and starts to fall in love with her.

Bizu, a French soccer player who had an affair with Xania and therefore is the prime suspect in Gluant's murder, is shot in the head and killed in the team's changing room. While at a casino to gather information, Clouseau encounters British Agent 006, Nigel Boswell. Boswell foils a robbery at the casino by the "Gas Mask Bandits", using Clouseau's trench coat to hide his identity. Clouseau mistakenly receives credit for the deed and is subsequently nominated for the Légion d'honneur, much to Dreyfus' dismay.

Clouseau and Ponton follow Xania to New York City, suspecting that she knows more than she is telling. However, despite Ponton's insistence that she is most likely a suspect because Gluant cheated on her, Clouseau decides Xania is innocent. While in New York, Clouseau and Ponton eat hamburgers, and Clouseau discovers his love for the sandwich, which he had assumed to be nothing more than "disgusting American food". Meanwhile, because the poison that killed Gluant was derived from Chinese herbs, Dreyfus concludes that the killer is a Chinese envoy named Dr. Pang.

Ready to take charge of the case and win the Légion d'honneur, Dreyfus has one of his officers swap Clouseau's bag with one full of weapons at the airport. The bag sets off the metal detector at security control, causing the guards to be suspicious of Clouseau who is eventually arrested because of his inability to pronounce "hamburger" correctly, as he tried to smuggle some for the flight home due to his personal dislike of in-flight meals. Upon his return to France, the press vilifies him and Dreyfus strips him of his rank of Inspector. Dreyfus now plots to publicly arrest Dr. Pang at the Presidential Ball, where Xania will also be performing.

Clouseau returns home and happens to see an article about his arrest online. He deduces from the photograph in it that the assassin will target Xania next, and he phones Ponton and Nicole. The trio hurry to the Élysée Palace and sneak into the Presidential Ball. While Dreyfus publicly arrests Dr. Pang for Gluant's murder, Clouseau and Ponton save Xania's life by capturing her would-be assassin, Yuri, the coach of the football team. Jealous of Gluant and believing he should've taken credit for the football team's success instead of Gluant, Yuri used his knowledge of Chinese herbs, mandated by a soccer statute, to kill him. After overhearing Yuri's rants, Bizu blackmailed him, so Yuri killed Bizu using Russian military tactics to target the latter's occipital lobe. Yuri targeted Xania because she ignored him while she dated Gluant. Clouseau reveals the Pink Panther was not stolen but instead sewn into the lining of Xania's purse. He discovered this after the photograph of his arrest also showed an X-ray of the purse going through airport security. Xania confessed that she received it from Gluant as an engagement ring — he had whispered his proposal to her prior to the football match — but she hid this fact because she thought it could implicate her as the killer. Clouseau concludes that Xania is the ring's rightful owner, while Yuri is taken into custody.

For successfully solving the case, Clouseau wins the Légion d'honneur. While leaving the ceremony with Ponton, Clouseau gets Dreyfus' suit caught in his car door; he remains oblivious to Dreyfus' screams as he drives away. Clouseau, Ponton and Nicole later visit him in the hospital. After Clouseau wishes him well, he accidentally releases the brake on Dreyfus' bed; the bed races through the hospital corridors and throws Dreyfus into the Seine, and he shouts Clouseau's name in anger as he is plunged into the river.

Main cast

Supporting cast

Jackie Chan was originally offered the part of Clouseau's manservant, Cato Fong, but turned it down due to his perceived political incorrectness. Gilbert Ponton serves as Cato's stand in.

Production

A re collaboration between Steve Martin and producer Robert Simonds, the successful teaming behind Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther had a production budget of US$80 million. Filming began on May 10, 2004.

The film was originally supposed to seek an August 5, 2005 release date, but was then pushed forward to February 10, 2006, because of Sony. "With the recent acquisition of MGM, we wanted to give our marketing department the time and opportunity to launch this very important franchise," Sony Pictures Releasing president Rory Bruer said. "We've seen the movie, and we really love this film. It's a franchise we believe in and are really excited about, and Steve Martin is great as Clouseau."

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 139 reviews and an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though Steve Martin is game, the particulars of the Inspector Clouseau character elude him in this middling update." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

The film was nominated for two Razzies in 2006, one in the category "Worst Remake or Rip-off", and one in the category "Worst Supporting Actress" for Kristin Chenoweth.

Box office

The Pink Panther opened at #1 in the United States, grossing $20.2 million from 3,477 theaters, and took in an additional $20.9 million over the four day Presidents Day weekend the following weekend. The film closed in theatres on April 16, 2006, having grossed $82.2 million in its ten weeks of release. Overseas, the film took $76.6 million, resulting in total box office gross revenue of $158.9 million. United States screenings made up 51.8% of box office takings, with international viewings responsible for 48.2%. The Pink Panther is the highest-grossing film in the Pink Panther franchise. The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2006, and topped the country's box office that weekend.

Home media

The Pink Panther was released for home viewing on June 13, 2006, and sold 693,588 DVD copies, worth $9,391,182. To date the film has sold 1,579,116 copies—$23,216,770 of consumer spending.

Music

Christophe Beck is credited with the film score which was released as the soundtrack album The Pink Panther about one month following the release of the film. R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles, who co-stars as Xania, performed two songs for the film, "A Woman Like Me" and #1 hit, "Check on It". The latter serves as the film's theme song aside from the Pink Panther theme.

Numerous other songs were used in small parts, but only Beck's original score was included on the soundtrack album.

Sequel

The sequel to this film, titled The Pink Panther 2, was released on February 6, 2009. It again features Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, Emily Mortimer as Nicole Durant, and Jean Reno as Gendarme Ponton, but was notable because Dreyfus was played by John Cleese instead of Kevin Kline. Beyonce Knowles did not return for the sequel either.

The film features Clouseau and a "Dream Team" of the world's best detectives formed to catch the international mastermind thief El Tornado, who has stolen several valuable treasures, including the Shroud of Turin, the Pope's Ring and the Pink Panther diamond. The film grossed $75,946,615 at the box office.