Flick Flak: Date Night
Date Night
Director: Shawn Levy
With: Steve Carell, Tina Fey
15, 87 mins
I will generally laugh a bit at any film loosely termed a comedy, sometimes despite my better judgement. Date Night boasts two very funny people in Steve Carell, who can make me laugh by pulling faces (Bruce Almighty) and shouting (Anchorman), and Tina Fey, writer of Mean Girls and 30 Rock (which I'm told is very funny).
Yet in Date Night they feel painfully forced, and only very occasional improv scenes between the two brought a smile to my face. This probably indicates that it is the script to blame and not the actors. Still, it is god awful. I should point out I seem to be in a minority with this opinion, as the audience in the cinema laughed quite a bit, and it has good press on IMDB.
Still, I'm going to press on with my opinion! The sheer lack of humour is my number one gripe with the film. I was painfully aware of how unfunny I was finding it throughout, and this turned to just pain towards the end, with a horribly contrived scene in which Carell and Fey's Fosters have to do a 'sexy' dance for a corrupt politician so that he will talk to them. I found myself literally hiding my face, embarrassed for the actors involved. I am a fan of The Office (the British version), so I have been known to laugh at dancing which is so embarrassing it is cringe worthy. The vital difference is that in Date Night it is supposed to be actually funny and not cringey humour.
This misuse of good actors is my second issue with Date Night. I have established that a terrible script has smothered all comedic life out of Carell and Fey, but elsewhere in the film decent actors struggle to make an impact. For me James Franco and Mila Kunis completely steal their scene as an unhinged couple, but they are gone all too soon. An even greater affront was the blink-and-you'll-miss-it inclusion of Mark Ruffalo. This is an actor who recently was excellent in Shutter Island, and further back in Zodiac and Collateral. Yet in this travesty he had a few lines and was then gone. Still, hopefully we can forget he was in Date Night and move on, for his sake.
The one cameo, and one part of the film which made me laugh, was Mark Wahlberg and the running joke that his amazing physique makes Steve Carell's character feel inadequate. Carell's acting was good enough to make this joke work - he noticeably looks more and more dejected the longer his wife flirts with Wahlberg, and yet he still can't help admiring that chest himself. But this joke appeared to be too subtle for the audience, and the writers felt we needed the punch line rammed in our faces, with Carell repeatedly requesting that Wahlberg don a shirt. Very frustrating when the acting alone was good enough to convey the joke.
Incidentally, can someone please stop Ray Liotta from appearing in films now? It might have been that the film had worn me down to a state of hating everyone in it, but when he appears near the end I groaned out loud, and felt dread at having to watch his pointy face spitting the same dialogue he always does for the last few minutes of the movie.
So before I ramble on in an incoherent rage (too late?), I should probably wrap this up. Clearly I'm not recommending this film to anyone with a sense of humour, but then, a lot of people do seem to be enjoying it. Just don't say I didn't warn you!
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2 Comments – Post a comment
Sambow
Commented 24 months ago - 18th May 2010 - 07:37am
I'm sorry, I have to dissagree with you!
I went to see Date night with my friends as a birthday party and we couldn't stop laughing throughout. When the flim ended we all commented that Carell and Fey did excellent jobs and made the flim funny (along with the taxi driver) I thought the script in particluar was great and was actually funny- although that excludes the slightly cliched ending. Apart from that though I found it a really good film.
I guess we have different sense's of humour, because I think I would recommend it to anyone xD
-Sambow
neilramsden
Commented 24 months ago - 20th May 2010 - 16:03pm
Fair enough! I don't really know why I didn't enjoy it- like I said, Carrell and Fey are both very funny, and normally I find most comedies at least a bit funny. This one just didn't tickle me! But, like I said, I think I am in a minority!