Date Night (2010)

I can appreciate a well-done screwball comedy as much as the next guy, but generally speaking Date Night is not the type of movie I'd go out of my way to see. But after last night's traumatic film-watching experience (read my review of Dear Zachary if you don't know what I'm talking about), a goofy Tina Fey/Steve Carell romcom seemed like exactly what I needed.

Date Night strolls down the well-trodden path worn by such classics as North By Northwest and Adventures in Babysitting: a couple "normal" folks (here a New Jersey couple played by Fey and Carell) stumble into an overplotted mess of intrigue and flying bullets. The suspense (such as there is) and the comedy comes from their utter bewilderment at finding themselves in such a direct-to-video predicament. They're in over their heads, and blah blah blah blah blah...

The overplotted mess itself doesn't really matter. What matters is whether or not our leads are A) funny, B) likeable, and C) at least quasi-relatable. While certainly no classic, Date Night mostly succeeds on all three counts.

Fey and Carell are Claire and Phil Foster, a bored -- and boring -- married couple living in the burbs outside of New York. They're the type of people who forgo sex if it means having to remove one's mouth-guard. In a vain attempt to keep the coals burning in their relationship, they schedule weekly date nights at a local chain restaurant...but even there they have a hard time talking about anything other than the birthday presents they have to get for their kids' friends. In other words, they're hopeless.

What could be (and should be, based on the rote script and uninspired direction) an insufferably smug and patronizing look at the deadened zombies supposedly shambling through the suburbs is rescued by Fey and Carell, who manage to keep their performances a hair's breadth above complete caricature. Sure, we get glimpses of Liz Lemon and Michael Scott here and there, but these are smart performers, and they wisely opt to err on the side of keeping Phil and Claire grounded (at least until the shit hits the fan). When they crack each other up imagining the conversations being had by their fellow restaurant goers, we see the hint of the shared sense of humor that brought these two together in the first place. We get an impression of two people who are bored by their circumstances, but still basically love each other and -- perhaps more importantly -- like each others' company.

After learning of the impending divorce of two of their friends, however, the freak out a little bit and decide to put a little more effort into their next date night. Spontaneously driving into Manhattan to try to get into a chic seafood restaurant that demands customers reserve their tables a month in advance, they end up impersonating another couple -- the Tripplehorns -- on the reservation list. The sudden thrill of mostly benign "oooh, we might get caught" danger provides a bit of spark, and we see a glimpse of the probably mischievous college students they once were before life (and kids) wore them down.

Then a pair of hitmen show up, thinking they are the Tripplehorns, and hijinks predictably ensue.

Like I said, what happens next only matters inasmuch as it gives Fey and Carell more opportunities to comedically bounce off of each other. There's something about a stolen flash drive, a corrupt DA (played by an always great William Fichtner), a brooding mobster (played by a phoning-it-in Ray Liotta), a pair of corrupt cops (Jimmi Simpson and Common), two decent cops (Taraji P. Henson and some other guy), a lowlife couple (James Franco and Mila Kunis) whose relationship amusingly mirrors that of Claire and Phil, one of the most stupid/funny car chases I've seen in awhile, and -- funniest of all -- a perpetually shirtless Marky Mark (Mark Wahlburg, to those younger than me) as a special ops guy whose pecs make Claire get all tingly and Phil "want to kill myself". There's a ridiculous climax that involves a hilarious Fey/Carell pole-dance in one of those seedy strip clubs that I suspect only exist in the heads of Hollywood production designers.

But all that extra business is just that: business. It's window dressing. In the end it all comes down to Fey and Carell. And -- while neither of them reach the heights they've proven themselves capable of on The Office and 30 Rock -- they deliver.

Date Night is a two-star movie elevated by at least half-a-star -- maybe more -- by its lead performances. I wouldn't say to rush out and see this right away. But if you happen to be stuck in a soul-deadening suburban marriage and you're looking for something to kill a couple hours, you could do way worse.