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Back Shelf Beauties
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Failure To Launch This movie appears to be a studio marketing director's dream. It has Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker to bring in ladies ages 25 - 54. It has NFL legend Terry Bradshaw to keep their boyfriends and husbands happy, and co-star Zooey Deschanel raises the hipster quotient. Plus, it's a romantic comedy, which we haven't seen too many of in the year 2006. What's Failure To Launch missing? Some laughs, and focus on the plot, which are kind of important, too. Plus, you have to see Terry Bradshaw walk around all naked and stuff. Like Seinfeld said, it's bad naked. McConaughey stars as Tripp - a charming, handsome 35-year old boat broker in Baltimore who still lives at home with Mom (Kathy Bates) and Dad (Terry "The Greatest Quarterback Ever for The Greatest Football Team Ever" Bradshaw). Mom treats Tripp like a pampered teen, but both parents are ready to see him fly out of the nest and start living life like an adult (you know, with a financially crushing mortgage, job he hates, and constant stress that grinds the life out of him and eventually leads to a heart attack when he turns 50. Come to think of it, the being a kid forever thing sounds pretty good). One day, while shopping for some furniture with the parents, Tripp coincidentally strikes up a flirty conversation with Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker), and sets up a first date. Little does he know, Paula secretly has been hired by Mom and Dad to intervene and get Tripp to move out of the house by helping him become more mature and ambitious. Will she be able to convince him to move out? Will Tripp discover their scheme? Are Tripp and Paula really falling in love? Failure To Launch tries very hard to break out of the romantic comedy formula with some additional wackiness and guy humor, but they might have been better sticking to the formula. Sometimes, formula works, which is why I don't replace the sugar in my cake recipe with salt just to spice things up a bit and be different. Writers Tom Astle and Matt Ember overload the film with their own version of salt, which is too many characters, too many situations and not enough focus on the sugar - Tripp's relationships with Paula and his parents. In the middle of the movie we expect to see, Ember and Astle try to make Failure To Launch into a guy buddy comedy that is dreadfully unfunny. Co-stars Justin Bartha (as Ace) and Bradley Cooper (as Demo) have no chemistry with McConaughey and every scene with them appears to be a lame and desperate attempt to make a Farrelly Brothers comedy like There's Something About Mary. Tripp is attacked by various animals when out biking, climbing and more with his friends. The scenes are forced into the movie with little impact on any other aspect of the story, and could easily be removed without any loss to the story at all, and should be removed since they stink. Add to it the "zany" scenes of the guys mountain biking in the woods and surfing with dolphins outside of Baltimore, and you have a movie that doesn't feel real in any way possible (if dolphins tried to swim anywhere near Baltimore, they would die from cold temperatures, pollution or general proximity to Baltimore). Astle and Ember should have saved these scenes for an entirely different movie. Much the same can be said for the subplot involving Paula's roommate, Kit (Zooey Deschanel), and her battles with a loud mocking bird that has taken up residence in a tree outside of their home. I read that Deschanel takes acting lesson from an acting coach before each movie, so she might want to get her money back for this one. Deschanel doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie's bright, light, romantic tone, doesn't seem to be outraged enough when having her supposedly wacky fits of rage and sounds too monotone. She feels like the wrong actress in the wrong movie. What Failure To Launch needs is more interaction between Paula and Tripp, as well as more interaction between Tripp's parents and Paula. The film's biggest revelations don't have the necessary impact because we haven't seen true love grow between Tripp and Paula. We need more intimacy and longing looks to believe they might be falling for each other, most of which feels pushed aside for the stupid wacky jokes. Additionally, more interaction between Paula and Tripp would help develop Tripp as a man-child who needs to grow up, and starts to mature because of this new relationship with this amazing girlfriend. Finally, we need more plotting and scheming between Paula and Tripp's parents. This is supposed to be a set up to get him out of the house, so let's see them figuring out how to do it. Making matters worse, the supposedly zany comedy loses its way towards the end and becomes much too introspective. Failure To Launch has some interesting and funny moments, made better by McConaughey's vibrant charm, but director Tom Dey and the writers fail to make a compelling movie out of it. 1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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