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You, Me & Dupree review
You, Me &
Dupree
Review :
Iffy comedy about a guest being a pest
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service
Film: "You, Me & Dupree"; Cast: Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson, Owen
Wilson, Michael Douglas; Direction: Joe Russo & Anthony Russo;
Rating: *1/2
What can a romantic comedy about a newly-married couple and an
intruder masquerading as a guest do that the genre hasn't done
to death already?
Good question... tough decisions... Co-directors Joe and Anthony
Russo have a solution. They throw naughty-boy Wilson Owen into newly-married
Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson's neat suburban house and watch the
unemployed bum create domestic havoc.
In all honesty, some of Owen's
have-fun-till-everyone-drops-dead-in-fatigue tactics make
humorous viewing. Specially funny is an all-guys' baseball match
on TV that ends with two prostitutes with whips showing up at
Dillon's doorstep just when his wife is back home.
Perfect timing? Or check out that extremely physical moment of
hectic humour when Dillon, entertaining his disapproving
father-in-law (Michael Douglas, doing an upper-crust jerk's part
with great relish), is suddenly disturbed by a bum chum who
sneaks into the compound to salvage a box of porn films that
Dillon had recently thrown out in the garbage.
.
Junk feud? The basic problem with this cloistered comedy isn't
its lack of newness. It's the dithering perception of the
guest-as-pest theory.
Are we supposed to be indulgent towards Owen Wilson's tactless
abuse of the newly married couple? Okay. Done. But why does the
couple take the crap -- at times, literally (catch the ugh
interlude where Owen defecates in the couple's personal
bathroom).
All said and dumb, "You, Me & Dupree" exudes an airy jaunty
exterior underlined by a feeling of grave misgivings that jells
well as long as you know this is all for fun.
The principal performances sparkle, though Kate Hudson should
guard against using stock expressions to convey stock
situations.
Matt Dillon is always a delight. We saw him as the brutal racist
cop in "Crash". Now watch him play the ambitious newly-married
corporate guy sucking up to his boss who happens to be his
father-in-law. He's delightfully in-sync with white-collar
aspirations.
The film 'belongs' to Owen Wilson. But his character suffers
from radical inconsistencies. Guest with powers of jest? Or a
pest with powers to cause irreparable damage. Psycho or brat?
That's the question. Unquestionably, we have some disarming
moments to pin us down for nearly two hours... like the one
where Owen after being thrown out sits forlorn in the pouring
rain. The couple take pity on him and drive him back to their
home.
That's when the plot drives all reason around the bend.
.
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