Over at HuffPo, blogger Jack Donaldson (Middlebury '06) is suffering from heartbreak and disillusionment. Who is responsible for this young man's tragic malaise? Step forward Will Ferrell. Jack caught Semi-Pro last week, and let's just say that he was at the very least disappointed. How badly did the film shatter Jack's soul?

[I]t was offensive to see a star such as Ferrell, insulated from the world around him, seem to sincerely believe that people would want to see him re-treading a character and idea he had 10 years ago. To see Semi-Pro is to see one of America's leading comedic stars making total suckers out of all who had faith in him. The film represents a complete tailspin in Will Ferrell's career. We are currently witnessing a star slide into complete irrelevance and self-parody.

Donaldson speaks, obviously, as one who previously revered Ferrell's oeuvre. He recalls the classic moments with the poignance of a spurned lover who weeps for what once was but might not be again:

It's just frustrating because the guy obviously has a lot of talent. I laughed so hard the first two times I saw Old School, especially when he shoots himself with the tranquilizer dart, I thought I might die right there on the sticky floor of the South Burlington movie theater. He made me laugh so hard I feared for my life.

No more. Jack is angry. But his rage, as is so often the case, leads him to ponder the bigger questions of life.

It is infuriating to see Ferrell be so lazy and show such little regard for his audience. I mean, he was promoting Semi-Pro like he thought it might actually be good. Those Old Spice commercials of him in tiny shorts make it seem as if he thought the joke still wasn't done, not even after four movies. Did he really not think this movie was going to be bad? (SIDENOTE: this raises an unrelated yet entirely compelling question: can brilliantly funny people all of a sudden wake up one day and no longer be funny? We've seen dramatic and sudden declines in the comedic careers of some of the world's funniest men: Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, and now Will Ferrell. These guys were comic gold until, one day, they weren't. Even Bill Murray had a complete dry spell before Wes Anderson revived him. Is it that these guys fly too close to the sun, and fall to earth hard, leaving their sense of humor somewhere near the heavens? A question for another day.)

Jack ends his essay on a note of hope: perhaps Ferrell will be shamed by the paltry box office results and realize that he must double his efforts if he has any hope of retaining his bond with the film-going community. One yearns that this plaintive cry might be heard loudly throughout the halls of Hollywood, that it reaches the star himself. For if Will Ferrell can lose a Jack Donaldson then, truly, there is nothing in which the Jacks of the world can place their fragile faith. And that's the greatest tragedy of all.