Before the comedy landscape was taken over by Judd Apatow and his mostly light-hearted odes to stunted male maturity, there was the Farrelly Brothers. The Farrellys made movies that took maturity and dunked it's head into the toilet. They were the kings of gross out humor. You never knew what bodily fluid or appendage might show up next, and it made their movies an adventure. Then something happened and it was like their comedy light bulb suddenly ran out of juice. Their style of humor was no longer in style, aided in part by the Farrelly's inability to match their established highs. Their last film, 2007's The Heartbreak Kid, was an embarrassing, inept attempt at remaining relevant. Now the Farrellys are back with their funniest film in years. Such as it is.
Owen Wilson is the most likable he's been in ages as Rick, a horny hound dog husband married to Maggie(Jenna Fischer) for years. Rick's got a serious problem, but it's not boredom or complacency in marriage. It's that he can't stop checking out other women, whether he's with his wife or not. Or maybe it's just that he's not very good at hiding it. His best friend, Fred(Jason Sudeikis), is even worse. His wife, Grace(Christina Applegate), is a stray glance away from kicking his butt all over town.
This is a serious problem, so who do the girls turn to for advice? Joy Behar. Why she was shoe horned into the story is beyond me, but thankfully that nails on a chalkboard voice of hers is present only for a few moments, just long enough to set up the plot. After a "revealing" dinner party with some friends goes awry, the two wives take Joy's suggestion and offer their husbands a "hall pass", complete freedom from marriage for a week. Do what they want. Eat what they want. Bang who they want. It's like mana from friggin' Heaven. Why hasn't this idea been written into the Constitution yet?
Turns out the guys aren't quite the studs they remember themselves being before marriage. Dreams of scoring with every hot chick in town turn into nights at Applebee's with the guys, while the women go off for some frolicking of their own. Rick tries to hook up with a sexy Australian barista(Nicky Whelan), but runs afoul of her jealous co-worker. Poor Fred runs from one disaster to another, with "explosive" results. No, we ain't talkin' dynamite.
What made the Farrelly Brothers' best comedies work so well was that no matter how raunchy or gross they were, there was always a lesson of sorts buried underneath. They've always had a pinpoint accuracy when it comes to detailing the way guys think. Think what you want about 2001's Shallow Hal, I know a lot of guys just like the one Jack Black played. Here, they show unique insight into the mind of any man in a long term committed relationship. It's about rebelling against domestication, of recapturing something we probably never had to begin with. It would've been so simple to just label Rick, Fred, and even their wives as just "bored spouses" but that's not what we get.
While the Farrelly's have definitely found their moral mojo again, the jokes are mostly spotty. There are some huge laughs here, mostly of the uncomfortable variety, reminiscent of the Farrelly's best flicks. One particularly "extended" scene at the gym where Rick is trying to impress a girl is so disturbing that it makes you want to cover your eyes, yet at the same time you don't want to miss it if something worse happens. The biggest laughs come courtesy of typically buttoned up character actor, Richard Jenkins, as a sort of Dalai Lama of baggin' chicks. It's such a ludicrous, far out role for him that it's impossible not to chuckle as he stiffly shuffles through a crowded club of hot 20 year olds.
The film utterly loses it's way at the end, devolving into car chases, shoot outs, and ridiculous emotional turns that make absolutely no sense. By then you've probably gotten enough good, nasty fun out of Hall Pass to not really care. It's far from the best the Farrelly Brothers have done, but it's a step in the right direction. And let's face it, we need them to stay busy making movies in order to thwart total Apatow dominance.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment