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Before we commence it's time to issue a "Reader/Potential Viewer Warning":
you have seen this sort of gross-out material and Ben Stiller as Ben Stiller
performance before. Luckily for us, the Farrellys are the equivalents of
Nobel Prize winners in the squirm-inducing comedy canon and The
Heartbreak Kid picks up where Dumb and Dumber and There's
Something About Mary left off in regards to absurd hilarity. The teasing
illustrations of 'kitty' rings, erect donkey penises, and porn star Kayla
Kleevage topless in a hot tub with Jerry Stiller ensure the Rhode Island
brothers are still very much gasp merchants.
Familiar collaborator Ben Stiller re-teams with the siblings for the modern
remake of the Charles Grodin/Cybill Shepherd 1972 film of the same name and
all parties have done an adequate job with their toilet humour revamp.
Stiller plays Eddie, a singleton at forty who somehow manages to pull Lila
(Malin Akerman) after a quasi-mugging episode in the film's gorgeous San
Francisco setting. The couple hurriedly tie the knot and it isn't until
their honeymoon in Mexico that our vacillating protagonist realises his
indistinct and dim wife isn't exactly how she was presented on the tin,
regardless of what his father (played superbly by real-life dad Jerry) or
his best friend (a could-be-funnier Rob Corddry of The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart fame) declare. Michelle Monaghan's Miranda is Eddie's true soul mate
and he has the assignment of escaping from the clutches of Lila the sexual
predator in their supposed period of marital bliss for the insanely sweet
and customary girl-next-door from Oxford, Mississippi.
To a casual spectator it may appear as if the directors slip-up on the
framework of the story. After all, this film is seemingly a standard rom-com
with all the trademark complications on the journey to true love. The
obvious littering of incongruous humour the brothers dose the 115 minutes
with is both advantageous and depressing. For instance, the wackiness of
characters such as Uncle Tito (a fine Carlos Mencia in typical
foreigner-in-film-simply-for-comic-relief territory) and Danny R. McBride's
apprehensively abrupt Martin are uproarious and maintain Peter and Bobby's
trend of illogical characters, but they divert from the fabric of the plot's
core. As a result, everyone comprehends why Eddie has to leave Lila (we
don't need to see her gargantuan obese mother), but not enough justification
is dedicated to why he pursues Miranda so profusely - a hazardous expedition
back into America and to redneck country is all well and good but it could
have had so much more profundity had the Farrellys given more validation.
Miranda is the sensible symbol for all followers of the chick flick genre,
but Lila is the wild object any materialistic guys looking for a trophy wife
would seek. The brothers just don't balance the two, and even though Lila is
absent for the finale, Akerman has left a permanent etch on our memories
that the shallow Monaghan cannot compete with because of the superficial
treatment she has been given by the script.
DreamWorks present a Farrelly Brothers endeavour however and that
classification is exactly what plays out. Akerman undertakes an exceptional
turn as the Cameron Diaz of 2007: she even adds nudity, copes with her
character's riotous deviated septum almost naturalistically, and exclaims
instantly-funny-but-shouldn't-be lines about sexual intercourse and black
men (unrepeatable here) flawlessly. In fact, the Swede steals the film from
the reliable grasp of Stiller who is basically amplifying his dialogue as a
continuation of his Ted Stroehmann down-and-outer from There's Something
About Mary. Auspiciously though, Stiller personifies yet another
bumbling loser in another hysterical Farrelly film with glorious
awkwardness, just lacking heart.
The summary
Crude gags galore in true Farrelly form, but just an uninspired escapade.
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