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Every once in a while, there comes a rom-com which manages to
buck the trend of mediocrity usually attached to the genre. There are films
such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle and
Four Weddings and a Funeral which all transcended their expectations
and were critically acclaimed for being both romantic and funny.
Failure To Launch is not one of those movies.
Trip (Matthew McConaughey) is a perfect ladies' man. Attractive, smooth
and charming his routine is near flawless. That is until he takes the girl
home for the night. Home to his parents. Trip hasn't been able to leave his
family home yet and his parents are starting to tire of his constant
presence. In comes Paula, an 'interventionist', hired by Trip's parents to
help show Trip that life can be better on the other side. But, and you'll
never guess this, she starts to harbour true feelings for her client.
Yawn.
It appears on paper that Failure To Launch would prove an inoffensive
little time-waster and for the first 10 or maybe even 15 minutes - the
charm of the two lead stars make it somewhat bearable. But this goodwill soon falters.
It's actually quite incredible how the filmmakers could
turn such a light, fluffy premise into something so completely hate-worthy.
The premise as it stands is deeply flawed. What kind of job is an
interventionist? In what warped world would such a stupid job exist? And why
does no one in the film seem at all surprised that such a job does exist?
The interventionist is played by the usually likeable Sarah Jessica Parker.
One would think that with all of her experience in the genre, she would
avoid drivel like this as she would the plague. This is the kind of
movie her and her Sex and the City counterparts would ridicule.
Matthew McConaughey, once seen as a contender for the top, is again
slumming it in a depressingly smug manner. Together, they make for an
attractive yet bland couple who share absolutely no chemistry, something
which proves a major problem. The filmmakers seem to lose interest with the
main romance (much like the audience) half-way through and then scatter in
variously inane subplots concerning their sidelined friends. Zooey
Deschanel, so brilliant in films such as The Good Girl and
Elf, replays her typical quirky, sardonic routine but tailored to
the blockbuster crowd, meaning all of the humour and logic is taken away
from her behaviour. Her main arc involves whether or not she can kill a
bird.
The film also relies on stupefying slapstick comedy. Much of the 'humour'
is derived from bizarre, incongruous scenes where McConaughey gets bitten by
various animals. No, I don't get the relevance either. The dialogue is full
of so many clunkers, it almost becomes unintentionally funny. That is if it
wasn't so mind-numbingly dull. My 'favourite' line has to be "You smell
of.......fun!". I'd recommend bringing a sick bag to make the script that little
bit more bearable.
The climax is ridiculously familiar.
If one more person quits their job and travels to a faraway place, just
because their love life has suddenly failed, I am going to slit my wrists.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly light, likeable quality that a film like
this has. It's a deviously bad film, one of the worst that I can remember.
It makes How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days look like The Shawshank
Redemption. And the title? They're asking for trouble there. Too. Many.
Puns.
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