An iffy movie...

Rating: 5/10 (2 October 2005)

I went to this film with very high hopes based on all I had read about the film, and was very disappointed. Yes it contains a few laugh out-loud moments, but for the most part it fails to deliver. The problem is that Owen Wilson is playing the same exact character yet again. While it was funny the first few times out, the character needs to change and grow up, it's no longer amusing. The script is for the most part forced, particularly the predictable way the movie ends. None of it seems to be real. The humor that could have been garnered from the eccentricities of the Treasury Secretary's family (the Cleary's) led by Christopher Walken, is lost because we have to spend too much time on the juvenile delinquent leads. As a result your left with two movies, the juvenile one, which the filmmakers seem to want to make, in which the leads crash weddings (and a funeral which is really sick and not funny), and the one in which a zany family is on display, which the filmmakers throw away. Frankly, I preferred the zany family. The musical backdrop for the film is also jarringly inappropriate at several moments, and this definitely distracts from the film. On the other hand Walken is bright and amusing, and Rachel McAdams has a few genuine moments as Clair. Unfortunately there is little chemistry between her and Wilson, and the romantic moments seem forced. However, her portrayal of a young women torn between familial duty, and wanting to chart her own course is very fine, it just doesn't belong in the juvenile comedy the filmmakers wanted to make. All in all a disappointment, although the family comedy redeems the film, and makes it watchable.