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Failure to Launch
USA, 2006
[Tom Dey]
Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Bates
Romance / Comedy
13th July 2006
While you shouldn't expect too much from this 97 minute romantic comedy as the plot is pretty corny, it is still an enjoyably brainless chick flick. Thirty-five year old Tripp (McConaughey) has everything going for him; a job that he loves, a fancy ride, and an amazing pad. So what's the catch? He still lives at home with his parents (Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates). McConaughey looks really weird in this film with his heavy orange tan and super-white teeth, but back to the plot. His parents hire an interventionist named Paula (Parker) to convince him to move out. Unsurprisingly Parker is irritating as ever in this movie, even going so far as to keep making an annoying squeak sound (think dog's chew toy) throughout the film. Parker seems to play a very similar character to her Sex in the City role, which is both a benefit and a drawback to a film hoping to draw more than just Carrie fans.

So, Paula sets it up where she "accidentally" bumps into Tripp at a furniture store and it all goes on from there. She has a standard routine with all her "clients". She plans to get Tripp to ask her out, involve him in an emotional trauma (her dog breaking it's leg for instance), winning approval from Tripp's friends, delaying sex, getting Tripp to teach her something and then "launch" him, hence the title,
Failure to Launch. Unfortunately Paula ends up breaking her biggest rule which is sleeping with Tripp (I say unfortunately because she is just so damn hideous. *Shudder*).

It goes downhill from here where Paula's roommate,
To Kill a Mockingbird-obsessed Kit (Zooey Deschanel), who is dating Ace (Justin Bartha) spills the beans and Tripp finds out what's going on. Yawn. McConaughey pretty much assumes the exact same role that he had in How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days where he's now pretending to be a sincere, considerate, committed boyfriend. The one true redeeming feature of the film, and I was surprised by it to boot, was a Patton Oswalt cameo. He plays his usual nerdy character this time being obsessed with the Star Wars trilogy. At least it's a step up from handing out subway tokens.
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