For most people starring in the mega-flop Evan Almighty would completely ruin their career. No matter how much good faith your supporting roles (Anchorman, Little Miss Sunshine) and television work (The Office) gained you, being at the centre of an epic of awfulness such as the Bruce Almighty sequel would cause you to live under a rock for years to come, scrounging a career in true life tales featuring huskies (I’m looking at you Paul Walker!).
But Steve Carell is impossible to dislike. Like a newborn kitten or the art of mutual masterbation, he’s just great. Films that fall a little flat like Get Smart, Bewitched and Dan In Real Life are always 100% tolerable just for having Steve’s face appear. Date Night is one of these movies.
Phil (Steve Carell) and Clare Foster (Tina Fey) lead a comfortable married life. Far too comfortable. Each week for ‘date night’, they go to the same restaurant, eat the same food, go home and think up reasons not to have sex. When friends of theirs announce a seperation it’s just the kind of wake up call they need. To spice up their lives they hit the most elite restaurant in town without reservations. Unable to get a table Phil pretends that they’re ‘The Tripplehorns’. Unfortunately for The Fosters, The Tripplehorns aren’t people you want to pretend to be…
Date Night could well be the quintessential hit and miss movie. That’s not to say that when it works its riotously funny (it’s not) or when it doesn’t it’s the lamest movie ever (again it’s not), instead it just features a near 50/50 ratio of parts that work and parts that don’t. When ad-libbing life stories to go with other couples lives in restaurants the film features sweet yet offensive banter. When pretending to be New York hipsters, the usually excellent improv pair of Fey and Carell, don’t have a joke between them.
The problem lies with poor direction. Shawn Levy (director of the Night at the Museum films) has no control over the overall feel of the film, ultimately making it little more than skits shoehorned together. Of course its tempting to let the two finest comedy actors today just run with it but this approach helps neither them nor the finished product.
Cameos, ranging from Mark’s Ruffalo and Wahlberg to Leon from Curb Your Enthusiasm, never feel overly cheap but never feel worthy of the talents involved either. The film-makers hoping to hide a multitude of sins behind famous faces.
I’ve never been one to quibble too much about continuity (perhaps its Robert Webb’s stupidly pedentic BBC3 series that’s got my goat) but the regularity to which the main pair are covered, and then not covered, and then covered, in dirt and grime becomes infuriating. Obviously if Date Night was entertaining enough this wouldn’t even be noticed. As it is the continuity mistakes scream at you in every scene.
The central premise of a married couple becoming nothing more than “really excellent roommates” is sweet enough for investigation and a good pedigree for a cast should have equalled a success. Lacking a tight script and assured direction leaves Date Night the kind of film you’ll be able to pick apart after, perhaps with a partner old or new.
You might even bond over it…
