Just a good old-fashioned comedy

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2001)

Once upon a time, comedy writers sought to create humor through plot and character development, rather than merely packing the script with crude sight gags and one-liners. "Meet the Parents" is a long-overdue renaissance of this lost art form. While most modern comedy films are all punch lines and no joke, this one earns its laughs the old-fashioned way--building comedic situations and using its one-liners as mere icing on the cake. As a result, "Meet the Parents" bears more resemblance to "Some Like it Hot" than it does to "There's Something About Mary".
Having recently been married myself, (inheriting a stern set of in-laws) I found myself identifying strongly with the ill-fated Ben Stiller character. The increasingly complicated situations in which he becomes ensnared were physically stressful to watch. The father (Robert DeNiro) is demanding and intrusive. The girlfriend (Teri Polo) is too self-absorbed to notice how badly things are going. The hapless suitor makes increasingly boneheaded decisions in a desperate effort to curry favor. We've all been there. We see ourselves in the characters, and we're forced to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.
The acting is solid, the script is as tightly wound as a good episode of "Seinfeld", and the laughs are abundant. You can't ask much more than that from a comedy.