fantastic comedy!

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2002)

Contains Spoilers! The plot? Ben Stiller is a nurse, very much in love with Teri Polo. Just as he is about to propose, he comes to know about Teri's sister's engagement to some doctor  guy who was courteous enough to ask Teri's father before asking her sister! Obviously Ben wants to be in the good books of Teri. As a result, he decides to spend the weekend with Teri's parents (and propose to her parents, before he proposes to Teri). Of course, he screws up the weekend, with the aid of my man  Robert De Nero, who is Teri's father (surprise!) and is, in not in a mood to have a nurse as his son  in  law. A slew of idiosyncrasies exhibited by Ben soon follow, till the movie ends. The end? (Take a guess.) The movie is a war between a nurse (Ben) and an ex  C.I.A. interrogator (De Nero)  the former trying to win the heart of the latter, and the latter finding it hard to accept the former because of a lot of things, such as the former's name, profession, hatred towards cats, and a whole lot of other goofy things, which make up the movie. Ben can be looked upon with pity, considering the things he has to go through, throughout the weekend, but the movie is, by no means, a warm hearted comedy. So, laugh your heart out on Ben, as he makes a total ass of himself (very seriously), with no sense of pathos. The humor is not merely slapstick and is, in a lot of parts, very subtle. Apart from Ben, falling off the roof of the house, making a fruitless attempt to catch De Nero's pet cat and almost setting the house on fire and making a healthy contribution to overflowing the septic tank (and blaming the cat for doing it, on top of that) the funny bits are well contained within formal conversation between Di Nero & Ben, with a stoic expression on the faces of both which makes the comedy more mordant and funny. The exchange of words between Ben & Robert which appear seething on the surface, is what gives a high to the movie. Even as Ben breaks up before the flight attendant, towards the end of the movie, while returning home after a terrible weekend, makes us laugh rather than feel sorry for him. The end is as sweet as it can get, with things, somehow patched up between Di Nero and Ben, of course. All is well that ends well.