Una noche fuera de serie

Greetings again from the darkness. Most married couples can probably relate to the grind of a life absorbed with work and parenting. Sometimes the fantasy turns into having a quiet moment of solitude. Heck, even "date night" can devolve into just another responsibility tacked on at the end of a long week. This is the premise for director Shawn Levy's film. The best part? It doesn't matter at all.

The reason this film works is not the plot or script, but rather the talents of the two funniest people in showbiz today: Steve Carell and Tina Fey. The two seem to have an exceptional comedic connection that brings out a timing that reminds of the best comedy teams of all time.

Sometimes what makes for the funniest comedy is putting "normal" people into exceptional situations and let them react. Here, Carell and Fey are just a typical suburban couple trying to re-ignite the luster of an all too comfortable marriage. The motivation comes when their friends (Mark Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig) announce they are splitting. This starts Carell and Fey off on a series of skits that would make Seinfeld proud.

The nightmare begins when the couple "steals" a reservation in a hot new restaurant and assume the identity of, what turns out to be a couple of low level thieves. The multitude of skits that follow include supporting work from dirty cops (Common and Jimmi Simpson), the real reservation holders (funny James Franco and Mila Kunis), a mob boss (Ray Liotta), a corrupt city official (William Fichtner) and a "security expert" in the eternally shirtless Mark Wahlberg.

The approach of the film reminds me of "After Hours", "Adventures in Babysitting" and "The Out of Towners". Some of the best comedy occurs when the main players aren't tossing out incessant one-liners. Think back to Cary Grant's screwball comedies. He was not a bumbling idiot or a stand-up comedian walking through life. His characters were reactionary to the odd-ball situations in which he was placed. That is the approach of Carell and Fey, and I hope they pursue future projects together.

The suburban tax lawyer Phil Foster (Steve Carell) and the real estate agent Claire Foster (Tina Fey) have a boring married life in New Jersey. In their routine, they have once a week the "date night", when they hire a baby-sitter for their children and they have dinner in the same restaurant. When their best friends decide to divorce because of their routine, Phil decides to surprise Claire and have dinner in the fancy restaurant Claw in Manhattan. However, they do not have reservation and is almost impossible to get a table; when Phil overhears the waitress calling Mr. and Mrs. Tripplehorn, he lies and gets their table. Sooner two men invite them to leave the restaurant with them and they believe the invitation is because they took the reservation of a couple that has not shown up. But they discover that the couple stole a flash memory from the powerful gangster Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta) and now they have a serious problem to resolve.

"Date Night" is a funny and entertaining film with a non-original storyline about a mistaken couple that works. Steve Carell and the beautiful Tina Fey are hilarious in the roles of the suburban couple that has a night of adventure for taking the reservation of another couple in a popular restaurant. I believe most of the couples married for a long time will easily understand the situation of Phil and Claire. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Noite Fora de Série" ("An Outstanding Night")

I wonder how many married couples out there can attest to their lifestyle being nothing but revolving around work, family and especially kids, with the latter just sapping whatever free time they have in their waking hours, only to find themselves stuck in a wash-rinse-repeat cycle. The film examines in a comical fashion of course, the lifestyle of the typical family with working parents and young children, and how there isn't anything known as personal time, and having routine becoming the rot in their lives.

For the Fosters Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire (Tina Fey), such is their married life, with spontaneity and energy being sucked so dry, even their regular date nights seem like a chore. You know, that precious night where you think you can paint the town red with a babysitter looking after the kids, and the sad thing being that even that can turn out to be lifeless, save for their favourite game played during dinner, where they adlib what they think about other diners around them.

Which is pretty cool, given that the two comedians, as the blooper reel played during the end credits showed, hammed it up a lot with awesome ad-libbing and improvisation, that never fail to bring on the laughter. In fact, opportunities where they are cut loose and allowed to go really crazy, are some of the best parts of the film, breathing comedic life into a very simple story of how their, well, little white lie in order to get a table at a swanky restaurant, would turn their date night upside down into a crazy urban adventure, filled with thugs, cops, and well, a beefy Mark Wahlberg.

If I had a physique similar to Wahlberg's security expert Holbrooke, heck I'll strut around topless as well all the time, which serves as a running joke about Man's insecurities about the pectorals and abs of another. One of the nicer themes here involves how couples, beside spending time together, have to emotionally connect and be honest and upfront about their desires, and especially fears as well. In between pursuits and comedy, director Shawn Levy pauses the pace appropriately to inject some dramatic elements to sneak in a moment or two to examine just that, before stepping on the pedal to floor the film to its finale.

Like I mentioned, it's otherwise a very straightforward film that doesn't try to be more than it can be, keeping things simple and to the point, with great cameo appearances with the likes of Will.I.Am, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco and Mila Kunis being those instantly recognizable. Carell and Fey share an excellent chemistry and play off each other's antics really well from wit to the timing of their physical comedy, and you'll find yourself rooting for this average, normal couple, to be going one up against their adversaries in a single nighttime adventure, since all they want is to get out of their predicament, and back to their home and children like all parents do.

Stay until the end of the credits if you didn't have enough of the restaurant scene where Carell and Fey pose as arrogant Euro-trash, for additional laughs.

I didn't have any original plans of watching this movie. However, after reading quite a few good reviews of it, I decided to check if my prejudice had been correct. I have been a fan of Steve Carell & Tina Fey for some time, owing to their performances in The Office & 30 Rock. Alas, what they do in this movie is nothing even comparable to what they have achieved on the small screen. The movie is based around The Fosters, a simple family with the basic family problems: too much work, less time with family, a mechanical and repetitive routine, a boring life, annoying kids etc. The movie follows the predictive plot of this couple going out for a quiet evening which steam rolls into a supposedly crazy wild adventure.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to complain about the plot. Its a standard comic flick and not some thriller. I don't expect a revolutionary story but I do expect a few good laughs from the movie which it definitely failed to give me. It mostly comprised of 10yr old kids' level jokes and a whole lot of overacting. But to be fair, I must mention the acting was terrible on almost everyone's part and not just the main star cast.

Maybe its just because of so many movies following the average-person-goes-super path, that this seems so boring and unworthy of spending 2hrs on, but the fact is that people expect more of such a great cast. From corny 1 liners to repeated jokes (Mark Wahlberg's shirt uhhh....), if the things were not overdone so much, the movie may not have been this bad. But nevertheless, I guess I went for this movie with way too much expectations due to the cast. Watch it if you love the leads and have time to kill for some so-so jokes. Don't expect too much & you may just come out without a frown on your face.....

I never was a fan of director Shawn Levy's films. Sure, "Big Fat Liar" and the 2006 version of "The Pink Panther" did get some memorable moments, but they weren't THAT re-watchable. A good, funny movie is something that you can remember for quite some time, and I had a hard time remembering something memorable from "Cheaper By The Dozen" and "Just Married". However Levy isn't a bad director, it's just that he needs one good funny movie to really hit it off. No, the two "Night At The Museum" movies don't count. This one does. "Date Night", thus far, is the best movie Levy's directed.

By taking two of the funniest comedians today and putting them in a movie tailor-made for them is somewhat like a blessing. "Date Night" is a romantic comedy, with a slight detour into the action thriller genre. But it still has many laughs, big hearty ones, especially from both Carell and Fey. You see, both of them play a bored married couple who decides to liven up their love life by going into a posh (and extremely snobbish/overbooked) restaurant in the Big Apple. So the loving husband, desperate to work things out, claims (or rather, steals) an unoccupied reservation so that their night together would be romantic and luxurious. Big mistake, as they are mistaken for someone else, which leads to a night of danger, intrigue and excitement.

The best thing about the movie are both Carell and Fey and how well both play each other off. Both have excellent chemistry and have memorable moments and lines. Steve Carell is perfect as the dead-pan husband Phil, while Tina Fey as Claire looks gorgeous and deliver her own brand of jazzy humor. A fine example of their chemistry together is a scene where both of them ad-libs many couples in the film. Great stuff. To quote an early Australian reviewer; "The two surprisingly "deliver the emotional reality of a couple even under comedic demands". I loved them in the movie and I hope they do more comedies together.

There are jokes throughout the movie, both physical and in dialog. A fine example of the physical humor in the film: a car chase that is intense as it is ridiculously funny; and what is arguably the most hilarious strip/pole- dance I've seen in any movie. That scene had me laughing so much, I now have to take cough syrup. There's some memorable lines here too: "You stole our reservation? What kind of people are you?"; "He turned the gun sideways. It's a killshot!" among others. To see these two comedians going through all this in a plot so hilariously Hitchcockian (the plot kinda reminds me of "North By Northwest") is a hoot.

Balancing the comedians out are some fine supporting actors; in fact you could call the cast an ensemble cast of sorts. Besides Carell and Fey, you've got Mark Wahlberg who looks hunky shirtless, to Phil's dismay; Oscar-nominee Taraji P. Henson as a detective trying to put the pieces together; Mila Kunis and James Franco in nearly scene-stealing scenes as a wild couple who enjoy their love life despite their rowdiness; Common and Jimmi Simpson as the two pursuers; William Fichtner in a hilarious yet sleazy performance; and a villainous role for (surprise) Ray Liotta.

In technical aspects, Shawn Levy's direction is brisk and fast-paced, and the cinematography and camera work, as always by Dean Semler, is nothing short of great. The editing is fluid and doesn't ruin the smooth flow of the movie. The script, though with some flaws, is still pretty well written. Yes I agree the movie is illogical and clichéd at some points but then again it's a light-hearted comedy at it's core and for that purpose it got the job done tremendously. Plus at only 90 minutes it's pretty much short and straightforward with it's pace, so that you get what you want. Comedic entertainment at it's finest.

So overall, this is a great romantic comedy to take both your friends and/or your other too. It's a very funny and enjoyable movie to watch. It's a jolly good time at the movies, and I'm glad I saw it. Hey, maybe I'll see it again if I had the chance. This one's a winner.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 (Very good, worth your time and money)