Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
If I really wanted to, I could write this review in one paragraph. In fact, with most comedies, a paragraph--or sometimes a sentence--is all you need. If you laughed more often than you didn't, a comedy is probably worth seeing. The story and the characters are important to a degree, but it's that laugh factor that matters most of all. And DATE NIGHT, with its many flaws and occasional dead spots, still had me laughing a whole lot, largely on the strength of the sweet married couple at the center, played by two Second City vets Steve Carell and Tina Fey.
DATE NIGHT comes in at less than 90 minutes with credits, so it seems a little unfair to say that it often feels bloated and weighed down with characters and story. But the truth is, this film could have been one of the best comedies in recent memory with a one-hour running time, and that would include a solid end-credit blooper reel. But the truth is that this film about a long-married, slightly dorky couple attempting to put the spark back in their marriage by coming to New York City from their home in New Jersey for dinner works best when it stays small and intimate, which is why it's so frustrating that it is constantly going for big, broad laughs.
Phil and Claire Foster arrive at one of the city's trendiest new restaurants without a reservation, and with a frustrating evening at the bar that would likely result in no table, they take the reservation of an apparently no-show couple. And thus begins a wild and wacky evening of being mistaken for the couple whose reservation they stole, a couple who somehow has a flash drive loaded with incriminating evidence against one of the city's most powerful people. The often-forced plot throws dirty cops, car chases, and gun fights at them at a rapid pace, which I'm only willing to forgive because it puts our heroes in contact with a fantastic array of famous and funny faces in small supporting roles. But if this film's focus has been on what makes a marriage work in the relentlessly nonstop world of the Fosters' suburban life, that might have made for a movie of substance. And while I'm sure that screenwriter Josh Klausner (whose other writing credits include a screenplay polish on SHREK THE THIRD and co-writing the upcoming SHREK FOREVER AFTER) means well, were it not for a healthy does of great improv work on the part of Carell and Fey, this movie would have died early and often.
Neither actor overplays their dorky, out-of-touch characters too much. But when Claire spots a well-known musician in the restaurant at a table near them, her reaction ("Hey, that's Will.i.Am...from... Fergie") is not only funny but it also feels 100 percent suburban accurate. DATE NIGHT is blessedly loaded with little moments like that. But a car chase involving two cars locked at the front bumper or a couple of sequences involving a police officer (Taraji P. Henson) attempting to help the Fosters survive their evening being chased by dirty cops (Common and Jimmi Simpson) feel like filler, when I would have rather listened to the Fosters talk more about their relationship. The scenes in which Claire and Phil analyze their relationship are not just truthful, but in the hands of these comedy giants (both married for many years), are extremely amusing. I spent most of this film with a smile on my face, punctuated by moments of full-blown laughter.
As I said before, this film has a busload of unexpected surprises in terms of casting. Actors like William Fichtner and Mark Wahlberg, both of whom provide a lot of laughs, are in the opening credits. But then you get the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Ray Liotta just showing up in relatively small parts and usually killing. Franco and Kunis, in particular, are great as the sleazy couple whose reservation the Fosters stole.
To simply run through the parts of the plot that work or the jokes that made me laugh seems silly, especially for a film like DATE NIGHT, which relies to heavily on off-handed comments that steal all the laughs from the scripted plot. Carell and Fey don't need to be talked up by me. They have proven themselves on television and movies that they know the exact right way to deliver a joke. What is less certain is that the two know how to make comedy happen in the midst of a big, dumb action sequence that seems more of an exercise in killing time than anything else. Carell did alright in GET SMART, but Fey just looks lost or even bored during these scattered moments. Director Shawn Levy has made a career out of drawn-out effects-and-stunt-driven comedy sequences in such films as the remakes of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and THE PINK PANTHER, as well as the hugely successful NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM movies, but less is far more effective in DATE NIGHT, and for the most part every opportunity Levy takes to dial it back a bit is successful (or at least sets the stage for success to happen).
I'll admit, I was genuinely surprised at how much I laughed during DATE NIGHT, a movie that works quite well at giving us a peek into this crowded but functional marriage. It doesn't quite dive as deep into what makes a relationship work the same way KNOCKED UP or I LOVE YOU MAN did, but those films were two hours long a piece, and they didn't feel the need to throw in fight scenes and crooked-cop clichés. Some of my favorite material involves the scenes with Wahlberg, as Claire's always-shirtless former real estate client who helps them with some investigative work. Those sequences are perfect, for no other reason than Wahlberg's ripped body makes Carell wildly uncomfortable. More moments like those would have sent this movie into the stratosphere.
Still, what we're left with is pretty strong stuff. There's pretty much no way you won't laugh during DATE NIGHT, and it's an action movie weaved into a chick flick. If I were a more cynical person, I might gripe about somebody working overtime to please two demographics, but the fact is the film works, so I'll simply leave you by letting men and women know that you'll both dig this one a whole lot.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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