A comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey.
The story: Phil and Claire Foster (Carell and Fey) are a married couple with no spark, no romance, no passion. Just kids and routine and exhaustion. Then, when they hear two friends are getting divorced, they decide to go out on a real date to try to reignite the spark. On the date they are mistaken for another couple who have a flash drive that some unsovory people want back and now they are on the run from crooks and crooked cops as they try to get this mysterious flash drive and save their lives.
This movie kind of reminded me of ADVENTURES IN BABY SITTING, that unsung classic 80's film with Elizabeth Shue. It has the normal-turns-zany-adventure with a fun, comedy tone. It's just a fun movie. And I should admit I have a huge crush on Tina Fey, so that made it that much more enjoyable. However, there were a few things that definitely detracted. One is the co-stars. A lot of the smaller parts are filled with bigger name actors like James Franco and Milas Kunis and Mark Wahlberg and eventually these people became a distraction. I shouldn't be sitting there saying -- Hey, I recognise that guy! -- every five minutes. And it's not like these actors especially fit their parts either. It's like they all wanted to suck up to Fey so they could get on SNL or something. Weird. The second is the simple fact that it just isn't a smart movie, which is disappointing for me especially because I think Tina Fey is a very smart writer/comedianne. I want her to be in projects as smart as her best work and while this movie is nice and fun, it doesn't have that sharp insight/edge that her best work, whether from SNL or 30 Rock or Mean Girls, has. The final problem was I didn't think the movie did well in terms of set-up and emotional pay-off. That's because in the second half Phil (Carell) starts talking about having a plan and how Claire doesn't trust him and so she does everything herself and she knows how it makes her sound, etc, except I hadn't really felt like that was what the movie (emotionally) was about. Their relationship problem is presented as more of a rut with the kids, not about Claire being controlling or not trusting Phil or Phil not coming through when he gets an idea or anything like that. So in terms of emotional pay-off, they hadn't really set up what they needed to set up. Because of that the movie never really packs an emotional punch. It's nice, it's fun...but the best movies always give you something more -- yes, even the comedies -- and this just doesn't have it in it.
Still, there's plenty of fun in here.
** RECOMMEND (a nice, silly comedy) ***
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