Movie Reviews

You’ve seen this film before, we all have.  The clumsy, klutz, problem friend who ends up causing problem for a loving couple.  We’ll now you can see it again!  Joy.  Too predictable, and once again this year we find a film that breaks our “One Dumb Move Rule.”  Given its faults the film can only choose to try and skate by on the charm of its stars.  Now, it has quite a bit of charm, but not that much.

You, Me and Dupree
2 Stars

A premise about a good hearted but annoying friend can only take you so far.  The charm of you stars can take you a little further, but in the end if there’s no real point, and your movie is relying solely on gags and disaster scenes, you’ve got a problem.  You, Me and Dupree isn’t terrible, hell it’s even bearable for the most part.  It’s just not very good, but compared to Kate Hudson’s recent string of insipid romantic comedies it’s actually an improvement.

Dupree (Owen Wilson) is an idiot, klutz, emotionally stunted, and a fool (except when the movie needs him to be clever, suave, romantic, and wise).  His best friend Carl Peterson (Matt Dillon) has just gotten married to a lovely girl named Molly (Kate Hudson).  For taking time off for the wedding to serve as Carl’s best man Dupree gets fired and loses his job, car, and apartment.  So Dupree moves in with the couple.

From here you can tell where the story will go.  Dupree will infuriate Molly to the point where he’ll get thrown out.  Only then Molly will feel sorry for him and find the “true man” beneath the surface angering Carl to no end.

There’s also a subplot involving Carl who works for Kate’s father Mr. Thompson (Michael Douglas).  Thompson does everything he can to ridicule and belittle his new son-in-law despite his apparent love for his daughter.  I do have to give kudos for the casting here; the scenes with Douglas and Hudson come off surprisingly well.

The film starts to fall apart when every issue and problem can be solved with a simple talk.  Hence, the movie breaks our “One Dumb Move Rule” where one simple move, word, or action can solve the conflict and isn’t done simply to continue the contrived plot device in which the characters have been imprisoned by the writer and director.

Despite it’s problems the film does have some charm and a few funny moments.  It’s much better than this years Failure to Launch (what isn’t?), but still not good enough for me to recommend to you.  Still fans of Hudson’s romantic comedies should enjoy themselves here.

The film is just too predictable.  The jokes or “surprises” you’ll see coming long before any of the characters, and the contrived problems could have been easily solved with a simple talk.  The cast puts forth some good performances trying to save this one; even if they don’t quite succeed the effort itself is something to be proud of.