Ever since Airplane! reinvented film comedy, comic directors have consistently tried to make another Airplane! and failed, a lot. Today’s particular failure is so profound it makes one wonder if these guys saw the same Airplane! I saw. This Airplane! wannabe is a “romance” between two people I adore: Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd. These are two people, in fact, that I find funny, and have both made enough successful film comedy to make me wonder how neither could see that the script here is a giant dog, ranging somewhere between Rottweiler and Great Dane.
I think I cam sum this film up in one perpetual exchange: Joel (Rudd) has decided to drown his sorrows at the local pub. He pulls a stool up to the counter and the barman, after supplying a beer for Joel to cry in, surmises that Joel looks like a guy in the dumps. Joel says, “Tell me about it,” so the barman repeats himself. Then Joel says, “You can say that again,” and so the barman repeats himself. And Joel says, “Tell me about it,” so the barman repeats himself … and this goes on for –quite literally- at least ten turns before this Möbius strip narrative cuts to something else – and it does indeed have to cut; as far as we know, Joel and that barman are still in a fictional tavern having this fruitless conversation.
At some point, you have to ask yourself, “Is this funny? And if it is, why?” I suppose this is a joke on the fact that we have at least two English rhetorical turns of phrase which paradoxically request information while needing none. That’s terrific, fellas. Do continue. While noting such, I couldn’t help but catch the film’s sparse 83-minute run-time. On the shallow side, I should think. It begs the question: “Exactly how much filler did this nothing story need?”
The story itself involves Molly (Poehler), proud owner of the Upper Sweet Side candy store being bought out by CSR, a larger candy manufacturing conglomerate where Joel is an employee. Feel free to make all the “sweet, sweet sugar of corporate profits” or any other money = candy metaphor you like, because they actually apply here.
Molly and Joel have a blind date planned in which both has chosen to go to a Halloween costume party dressed as Benjamin Franklin. Now, that’s funny. But when they physically run into one another before the date and then proceed to go to the date together assuming that the other would eventually peel off in another direction, it becomes less funny. And less funny still when they become the only ones not in on the joke, but cannot find the humor in it. The extended scene takes us to a party where a random guest craps his costume, abandons it on the floor of the bathroom, lifts a bathrobe from the owner, displays such as his “new” costume, then (when caught) accuses any random someone of crapping in the costume he abandoned, and storms out of the party in a self-righteous rage. I would say this awkward and ugly exchange was a perfect metaphor for the Trump presidency, but the film was made in 2014.
They Came Together is told in the conversational reminisce style where the couple dines with another couple (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper), tells them the saga of how They Came Together, and then won’t let them leave until they’ve heard the whole tired story. Don’t worry folks, only 83 minutes; that’s less time than it takes to watch a movie! Bottom line is this film suffers because it has little to satirize, the jokes are flat, no genuine plot was written, and two likable people do not necessarily a successful movie make. If you want a genuine treat, just go find some actual candy.
Thirtysomethings with lives incomplete
Are defensive, then hastily retreat
For a story about candy
And affable randy
I wouldn’t call this film very “sweet”
Rated R, 83 Minutes
Director: David Wain
Writer: Michael Showalter, David Wain
Genre: “We totally made another Airplane!”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: I’m about as close to the ideal audience for this film as you get, which seems very sad
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who don’t enjoy parody, slapstick, or shallow satire
