Date Night
Review
by Anthony Morris
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Date Night
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Claire (Tina Fey) and Phil (Steve Carell) are a married
couple, and do you really care what happens next? It's Tina Fey and
Steve Carell, two of the funniest people on American television (even
if Australian networks treat their shows like crap): just having them
in the same room together should result in hilarity. Well, yes
and no. Yes, sticking them together does result in a fair amount of
hearty chuckles. But it turns out that even hysterically funny people
can only do so much when they're in a movie that's only so-so. The
basic set-up is strong, if not exactly inspired: worried that the
stresses of work and parenthood means they're falling into a rut, they
decide to crank their usual date night antics up a notch and go out for
a swanky dinner in Manhattan. Unfortunately, swanky dinners are
tough to obtain, so when they pretend to be another couple to get a
reservation they end up being taken out into an alley and told to hand
over "the flash drive" at gunpoint. Having no idea what's happening,
they flee, and a series of supposedly madcap adventures follow. Thing
is, while both Fey and Carell are very funny (and have good "married
couple" chemistry) often the scenes they find themselves in aren't all
that special. It doesn't help that this New York seems strangely
under-populated: usually this kind of film would throw in a bunch of
memorable cameo performances, but everyone else - even an impressively
shiftless Mark Wahlberg - just seems to be going through the motions. It's
not over-the-top enough to be a truly crazy night, nor is it grounded
enough to make us care during the occasional serious discussion of the
state of their marriage. But hey, you are getting Fey and Carell doing
their best: if you're even slightly a fan of one of them then Date
Night is date night material. 3 out
of 5
Date Night
Australian release: 8th April,
2010
Official
Site: Date Night
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, James
Franco, Kristen Wiig, Common, Ray Liotta, Mark Ruffalo, Leighton Meester
Director: Shawn Levy
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