No, it’s easier, and clearly more lucrative, to simply pretend that the movie is about them while subjecting Reuben to every form of abject humiliation known to mankind, and inventing a few along the way, too, like the sweaty manboob in Reuben’s face, which happens in a scene so pointless and throwaway, one that has nothing to do with any of the (pitiful) plots or subplots of the film, that it’s clear it exists in this film merely for the cheap shot it can take at Reuben. It’s not enough that they’re two very different people - he’s an uptight, risk- averse insurance expert and she’s an in- the- moment free spirit - and that there would be conflict and difficulty and, yes, even humor arising from their attempt to build a relationship together. Reuben Feffer (Stiller: Duplex), reeling from the breakup of his marriage to Lisa (Debra Messing: Hollywood Ending, The Mothman Prophecies), the length of which can be measured in hours, runs into a friend from junior high school, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston: Bruce Almighty, The Good Girl), and they hit it off.Īnd that, right there, gives these characters more humanity than the film does. It’s five minutes of pretend- romantic comedy surrounded by 85 minutes of every kind of absurd, unlikely way that Ben Stiller can be humiliated as an actor, as a creative person, as a human being. It’s all stuff like that in Along Came Polly, which purports to be a romantic comedy but is nothing of the sort. Is there any better definition of a whore than what Stiller has done to himself? How can he possibly be creatively satisfied with this? (We know from The Royal Tenenbaums that he’s still capable of something more.) Or is there really a dollar amount beyond which things like integrity no longer matter?Ĭuz here Stiller is again, flapping around in a sea of overflowing toilet water and getting slapped in the face by the manboob of a fat, sweaty, hairy guy. So is it just about money? Is it just about smart not selling to the masses, so Stiller went for the common and the cheap and the lowbrow? I’m sure he got a big, fat, juicy paycheck for Along Came Polly, and if he didn’t, he’ll certainly get one the next time he wallows in the filth of bodily- fluids humor and personal mortification, seeing as how Polly is raking in the cash. It’s idiotic crap that sells like crazy, of course. ![]() Remember when Ben Stiller was a human being, and not a punching bag for filmmakers? Remember The Ben Stiller Show, which was intelligent and witty and dangerous and bitingly satirical? Only about four people watched it, of course, which is why it didn’t last more than a handful of episodes, but it was enough to let you know that Stiller - a writer and director for the show, an instigator, one might call him - is way better, way smarter than the idiotic crap he’s been debasing himself in lately.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |