Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Steve Carell
Tina Fey
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Ruffalo
James Franco
Mila Kunis
Common
Directed By:
Shawn Levy
Since I've been with Josie for more than four years now, the struggle of a long time couple is something I understand. The difficulty, like Mark Ruffalo exposes so well in his concise cameo, is not to turn into "very good roommates". I find it's something Hollywood sometimes refuses to portray. Desire sells more than love. Most romance/romantic-flavored movies I've seen in my life are ending when underdog X kisses impossible girl Y for the first time and elopes into the conceptual sunset with her. "What happens after" is something no one in my generation seems to have ever asked themselves. So I watched Date Night with my scientist hat on. I hoped to understand what pieces Shawn Levy brought to the puzzle, that kept a married couple young, funny, energetic and profitable for movie executives.
Because there's nothing fun or sexy about Phil and Clarie Foster (Carell and Fey). They live in New Jersey, they have two kids and they have extenuating, tedious jobs that they endure because it pays the bills. One of their friend couple is breaking up as the routine caught up to them and transformed them into roommates. Afraid they might suffer the same fate, they willingly go out of their way to spice up their lives and steal another couple's reservation at a high end Manhattan restaurant. It's "date night" after all, everything is permitted. Since Hollywood's deus ex machina's plot device doesn't put up with brash immaturity, five minutes after they sat at the Tripplehorn family table, they find themselves running from the mob for a reason they don't quite understand. Soon enough, they find themselves alone against the world. They'll have to trust each other with their lives and be creative in other to survive and come back to their comfortable, boring life.
While it's not the funniest movie, Date Night has a few moments. Steve Carell and Tina Fey are good leads and make the most of it during the slapstick moments. The collision with a taxi and the car chase that ensues, struck me as the funniest moment of the movie and Carell, along with support actor J.B Smoove make a success out of it. Mark Wahlberg, who seemed to have suffered a brain aneurysm since The Departed, handles his support cast duties with surprising gracefulness. The part of Holbrooke Grant seemed to have been written for him, but his lack of facial expression matched the cold and vain Grant. Whenever the most wants to get sophisticated and relies more heavily on its dialog, it becomes hit or miss. There's a great literary running gag (that I'm not spoiling), but apart from that recurring joke, most of the dialog is rushed in. It suffers from the high paced action plot. Buster Keaton was great in The General, but I'm sure the movie would've been a little less stellar if it the character of Johnny Gray would've tried to wisecrack his way through that damn train.
After viewing Date Night, I am still without any answers as how Hollywood handles an actual depiction of love. For most of the movie, Carell and Fey could've been two guys. They could've been Laurel and Hardy if Shawn Levy would've cut about fifteen minutes of footage. Love is treated like this safe place that keep making sense whatever happens. And it's somewhat accurate. It's not getting a very thorough treatment, but it's a comedy. I hoped that Date Night would contain some more couple-related humor, but it's more of a generic, template-based comedy. In that sense, it gets the job done. It's going to make you have a somewhat of a good time for about eighty-eight minutes. But you know? Whenever you watch a comedy that doesn't leave you with severe abdominal soreness from laughing like a monkey for at least an hour an a half (last one who had this effect on me was the original Death At A Funeral), it's like eating a bag of potato chips. When it's over, you can't help but thing you could've done better with your time.
SCORE: 70%
