Film Review with Robert Mann – Date Night

26th April 2010

Date Night ****

Last month the awful Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler starrer The Bounty Hunter attempted to combine aspects from the romance, comedy and action genres. Suffice to say, despite solid credentials from its cast and director, the attempt was a complete disaster with the film failing to provide anything of value as either a romance, a comedy or an actioner. Now, another film is attempting something similar but Date Night is no repeat of the awfulness of The Bounty Hunter. For starters, the credentials of those involved are quite a bit more impressive. Say what you like about director Shawn Levy but, while he has never made anything especially memorable, he has a fairly consistent track record of delivering comedies that entertain with films like Cheaper By The Dozen, The Pink Panther and Night at the Museum showing that he is very capable of delivering crowd pleasing humour. More importantly perhaps are stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who are two of the hottest properties in American comedy right now, each having conquered both the television (Carell with his leading role in the American version of The Office and Fey for creating, writing and starring in the Emmy award winning 30 Rock) and film (Carell has starred in hit comedies such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty and Get Smart while Fey wrote and co-starred in Mean Girls and was also the star of Baby Mama) mediums. On top of that, the film also boasts a rather impressive supporting cast featuring the likes of Taraji P. Henson, Ray Liotta, William Fichtner, Leighton Meester, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg. All in all, quite impressive credentials and, coupled with a simple yet fantastic concept with lots of potential for hilarity, this is a film with the makings of a hit and one that really deserves to be successful.

Claire Foster (Tina Fey) and her husband Phil (Steve Carell) are a suburban couple who slog through their daily lives and try to make the best of their marriage. Even their regular ‘date nights’ of dinner and a movie have become just another routine. In an attempt to reignite the marital spark, they visit a trendy Manhattan bistro, but fail to get a table. In desperation, they pretend to be another couple – the Trippelhorns – who haven’t turned up. This turns out to be a big mistake when two scary gangsters (Jimmi Simpson and Common) turn up looking for the Trippelhorns, intending to retrieve something that has been stolen from crime boss Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta). Suddenly, Claire and Phil find themselves running for their lives and attempting to track down the real Trippelhorns – Taste (James Franco) and Whippit (Mila Kunis) – along the way getting help from private security expert Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg) and police Detective Arroyo (Taraji P. Henson). As their date becomes a night they’ll never forget, Claire and Phil take an unexpected walk on the wild side, and begin to remember what made them so special together in the first place.

If it had been made with anyone other than Steve Carell and Tina Fey in the leading roles, Date Night would have been average and forgettable. The writing and gags, while providing a few laughs, are largely not much to speak of, lacking the sharp wit of any of Fey’s self-written stuff, e.g. 30 Rock and Mean Girls, and generally being predictable and not laugh out loud funny. On their own the gags may be nothing special but coupled with the perfect comic timing of Carell and Fey they prove very funny. It is a testament to the strengths of Carell and Fey as comic performers that even with sub-par material they are still able to deliver something that is genuinely funny and that provides plenty of laugh out loud moments. Much of this can be attributed to their improvisational skills as it is clear that they haven’t just read the script and spoken their lines but have rather have done a substantial amount of ad-libbing, their improvisation really raising the comic qualities of the overall film. Scenes that could be completely devoid of humour in the hands of anyone else, here are transformed into scenes that will have (some of) you on the edge of your seat with laughter. It really is hard to imagine anyone other than Carell and Fey playing the roles. And it isn’t just in the humour regard that they deliver. We really can buy them as a married couple because they have such a convincing married couple dynamic, one that I suspect many married people may be able to relate to, particularly the monotony of routine that can arise in a marriage and the desire for more excitement, two things which are major elements in the story of the film. And when the action gets started, sparks really fly between them, their chemistry becoming truly electric. Simply put, on every level, they are perfect together. And thanks to them, this film provides one hilarious scene after another, including plenty of physical comedy as well as word play and what just may be one of the funniest car chases ever seen in a film. Despite boasting such an impressive supporting cast, the other performers generally fail to stand out, many of them having little more than cameo appearances and, unlike Carell and Fey, failing afoul of the flaws in the writing, but there is at least a very amusing turn from Mark Wahlberg in what is perhaps one of his best roles in a while. The absence of strength or screen time from other performers isn’t really a problem though as the majority of the film is focused entirely on Carell and Fey and they truly are fantastic, completely carrying the movie all on their own. So, if you are a fan of the zany comic stylings of Steve Carell and Tina Fey you are sure to love Date Night. In spite of shortcomings behind the camera, it is extremely funny and a great film to watch if you are out on your date night.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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