Date Night

Date Night is an amusing comedy playing to the strengths of its stars Tina Fey (Baby Mama) and Steve Carrell (40 Year Old Virgin). They are both smart, witty, and with an eye for the ridiculous. Yet in this comedy they play a married couple in a rut, and a little off of their game. They are nice, considerate and willing to make the personal sacrifices necessary to keep a marriage afloat. But when a couple close to them confides that they are getting a divorce, the Fosters start to question their marriage and their boring safe routine.

The Foster’s have a loving life together. Every month, they make sure to take time out of their busy schedules and go out on the town alone, as a couple. This usually means dinner at a family restaurant or perhaps a movie. But feeling a bit self-conscience after the break-up of their close friends, they decide to up the ante and drive to the city instead. This takes them to a newly opened seafood restaurant with celebrity clientele and a 2-month waiting list. Tried of being ridiculed by the headwaiter, they steal someone else’s reservation and their date night takes a harrowing turn. They have now been mistaken for a pair of blackmailing opportunists called the Tripplehorns and a team of crooked cops is on their tail.

Date Night is a strange combination of witty banter, and lowbrow slapstick. But for me the film worked best when the Foster’s were pitted against the other supporting players. For example, Claire Foster is a real estate agent and she remembers a Manhattan client who works in high tech security. They go to him for help and we are treated to a shirtless Mark Wahlberg (The Lovely Bones). Phil Foster becomes jealous of him and a little distracted by his James Bond lifestyle. His machismo reaction causes him to make some poor decisions and the Langs are now facing down the Tripplehorns, the couple who had their reservation stolen.

James Franco (Pineapple Express) and Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) are hysterical as the Tripplehorns. Their bickering, quickly followed by their get-a-room make-out scene, causes the Langs to realize how comfortable their sex-life has become. Mila plays a stripper who has stolen some compromising photos of the local D.A. played hilariously by William Fichtner (Blades of Glory). The Langs pretend to be exotic dancers in order to enter mobster Ray Liotta’s (Goodfellas) nightclub to locate the DA. Carrell and Fey are droll as they perform an absurd sexual dance routine in order to entice the inebriated D.A. and get his attention. But what is even funnier is William Fichtner’s reaction to their pathetic attempts at being sexy. He actually gets turned on and the lamer they are the more ludicrous he is.

Some of the comedy in this film relied too much on shtick which was unnecessary with such intelligent comedians. But overall it is a very amusing film. Compared to some of the other movies that these actors have been in, this film is fairly tame. It’s like they are being naughty, instead of out-right bad. And that’s okay with me, I don’t need a film to be raunchy to be funny, but I could have used some more belly laughs. With this cast, I really wanted to roar.

Rating: First Run A Middle class comedy