Sinister Comedy

Rating: Null/10 (8 July 2004)

Ben Stiller is quite a funny guy. He has one of those rubber faces that you can instantly crack up looking at. He plays Greg Focker, a male nurse in love with Meg Byrnes. The two are blissfully happy...all until it comes to meeting her parents. There's the charming, helpful mom and the ex CIA (psychotic???) dad (Robert DiNiro). I won't blabber on too much about the story except to say that you can tell just what's going to happen...one disaster after another. It's funny stuff...sometimes, with the slapstick of Stiller, but DeNiro's character may be hard to swallow and leave a bad taste as he interrogates and sometimes cooly humiliates Greg. DeNiro does play a good part; the naive father wanting the best for his daughter and no man is good enough for her. Good performances all round, but don't expect to be laughing your heart out as this film has a quite uneven balance of slapstick and sinister dryness. *** out of *****