A film review by Craig J. Koban January 18, 2011 |
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THE DILEMMA
Vince Vaughn: Ronny / Kevin James: Nick /Jennifer Connelly:
Beth / Winona Ryder: Geneva / Channing Tatum: Zip / Queen
Latifah: Susan |
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There is nothing wrong in
particular with Howard returning to his career roots, but the maker of CINDERELLA
MAN and APOLLO 13 seems woefully overqualified to be tackling such
a contrived, routine, and undistinguished mess that is THE DILEMMA.
It’s not so much that the film is awful, per se, but it’s more
of a disappointing misfire for an esteemed filmmaker of Howard's pedigree. Perhaps part of the problem is that Howard is directing an
Allen Loeb (21, THE
SWITCH, and WALL STREET 2)
script that is riddled with sitcom worthy set-ups and reveals, a
considerable amount of trifling laughs, and an ungodly mishmash of
slapsticky shenanigans with a dark and sobering melodramatic undertones.
What results is a terribly uneven and off balanced film, one where
you kind of question whether Howard or Loeb know intuitively what kind of
movie they were making. It’s too bad, because there
are some very talented comedic and dramatic performers in the piece and
the central bromance in the story between Vince Vaughn and Kevin James
works. Aside from their
obvious Laurel and Hardy physical facades (the massively tall Vaughn with
the short and rotund James), the pair has very decent comic chemistry and
timing with one another. James is a performer that has an unassumingly shy, everyman
schlep quality that makes him easily agreeable, which makes for an
effective comic foil to Vaughn, who perhaps has no equal when it comes to
playing tremendously confident, charismatic, hyperactively outgoing, and
head-spinningly verbose motormouths that speak with such a speed and
fluidity that you often laugh both at what he says and how he says it. Vaughn and James respectively
play old college collegues turned business partners and lifelong BFFs Ronny
Valentine and Nick Brannen who are staking large personal and financial
risks with a major automobile project that could be their ticket to wealth
and acclaim. Whereas Nick is happily married to his long-time
sweetheart, Geneva (Winona Ryder, who with this film and BLACK SWAN is vying
for a comeback), Ronny is plagued with insecurities about whether he
should propose to the love of his life, Beth (Jennifer Connelly).
Ronny seems convinced that marriage is a union that he holds dear
and would like to peruse with Beth, but his attempts to propose are
stymied by a dastardly discovery: he
catches Geneva in an adulterous fling with a rugged, handsome, but dopey
and easy-to-reduce-to-tears Zip (Channing Tatum, typically a very stiff
and mannered actor, but here he arguably gives his most
energetic and amusing performance). Okay…so here’s Ronny’s dilemma: he could break the news to his buddy, but he knows that it
would instantly deflate any sense of self-confidence and esteem he now
clings to. Furthermore, by
telling him and, in turn, ruining his marriage, it would have disastrous
side-effects on Nick’s abilities to get their car project off the ground
(they are facing a crushing and tension filled deadline).
Ronny then decides to make a fairly strategic decision by
confronting Geneva when she least expects it (in this case, at a Chicago
Blackhawks game). She pleads
with Ronny to not tell Nick, which he promises to abide by, but only if Geneva breaks it
up with Zip once and for all. She
agrees, but when Ronny finds out that she is still seeing the man, he
confronts her yet again, but this time she has a fiendish plan of her own
for turning the tables on him if he were to ever spill the beans to Nick.
Faced with almost insurmountable odds, Nick perseveres and begins a
complex plan of outing Geneva…with even more complex and unintended
results. THE DILEMMA is on solid ground
on a performance level. As
stated, James is loveably humble and soft-spokenly funny as Nick and
Vaughn is well…on pure Vince Vaughnian autopilot, but he plays these
same types of roles so resoundingly well (the edgy, loquacious, overgrown
manchild that is capable of being hostilely rude and overbearing while being
soft, sentimental, and sincere) that you are willing to forgive him for
playing these parts over and over again.
Of course, Vaughn is known for his lightning fast, improvisational
wits, and Howard thankfully lets him loose: he has one wickedly hilarious
line when he describes the GTO as a vehicle that has “taken more
virginities than Francis Albert Sinatra."
Then there is the coup de grace of all moments in the film when
Ronny takes it upon himself to toast Beth’s parents’ wedding
anniversary, which involves diatribes about honesty as well as an
explanation as to why it’s okay to have sex with a non-blood cousin
because the baby would not turn out “weird.”
It’s moments like this that show Vaughn at his most incisive best; it’s too bad that the rest of the film did not have as
much nerve. The female roles are, alas, more inconsistently realized. I really loved seeing Ryder pull out all of the stops to play a role that traverses from being emotionally wounded, vulnerable, contemptible, deceitful, and downright bitchy…often within just one line of dialogue; she is having considerable fun here with the part of the duplicitous wife. Jennifer Connolly, on the other hand, is not given much to really do here, other than to play the on-again-off-again supportive girlfriend that is forced to play in scenes where she shows love and affection for the problematic Ronny, but then must - whenever the highly convenient and hackneyed script calls for it – confront him with past demons that never feel like genuine revelations. There is a late-breaking bit of info regarding Ronny’s past that is shamefully introduced for the sake of creating artificial conflict in the final act. And what was Queen Latifa's function in this whole enterprise, other than to play a wisecracking and dirty-minded auto executive that works with Ronny and Nick that spews out lame dialogue designed for cheap and tawdry laughs? I mean...c'mon. More problems arise: the film
is too long by perhaps 20-30 minutes and it takes an awfully long time for
the story to go anywhere. Then there is
the aforementioned fact that Loeb’s script and Howard’s somewhat
lifeless direction really are skitzo when it comes to hammering home a
consistent tone: the film makes jarringly sharp detours into hysterics and
contemplative drama to the point of eye strain.
And…seriously…did anyone really buy Ronny and Nick’s
“ingenious” automobile concoction, which – as far as I can tell –
would retrofit modern muscle cars with computer controlled electric engines
that, in turn, would still make these cars roar and vibrate like their
gas-guzzling forefathers. Here’s
why this idea would never, ever fly: people who like testosterone appealing,
ear-splittingly loud and fossil-fuel unfriendly cars buy them because
simply because of those traits. It’s like LPs: purists don’t want to buy CD’s that
would be altered to sound like LPs…they just want the LPs. Get it? Ronny and Nick try to provide
an explanation as to why their car concept would fly during a presentation to
some car company bigwigs; at one point Ronny deadpans that electric
cars are “gay”, but “not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.” This
scene, shown in the film's trailers, was enough to get G.L.A.D. really pissed, which
forced Howard and the studio to cut it from all future trailers.
It stayed in the film, and Howard’s defense of his choice is both suitable and
ironic: “If storytellers, comedians, actors and artists are strong
armed into making creative changes, it will endanger comedy as both
entertainment and a provoker of thought.” THE DILEMMA neither provokes much thought, nor is it compelling and funny as entertainment, nor is there much creative artistry on display. Hmmmm...perhaps Howard and company could have benefited from more “strong-armed creative changes”? |
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