Post by StevePulaski on Jun 7, 2011 11:49:55 GMT -5
Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore just want peace and quiet in Duplex.
Rating: ★★½
What makes Duplex almost likable is its lead actors and their simple goal they can not achieve; a simplistic living style in their apartment. They are in such desperation they aren't able to think straight so they resort to very drastic and very dirty measures. What makes Duplex fail is its repetition of the same jokes over and over again and how fast the film runs out of ideas and things for the actors to say.
If it were in the hands of a couple of College kids, making a short film for film school and it went on for about an hour and twenty minutes less than what it did, maybe it would've been cute and a bit clever. Danny DeVito's choice to direct this oddball fiasco is questionable and debatable if he even cares about films anymore. I mean a year prior he directed the Robin Williams mess Death to Smootchy, but at least Duplex manages to surpass that wreck.
The plot: Alex (Stiller) and Nancy (Barrymore) are a couple looking for a house in New York. They want something nice, roomy, and affordable. They find a seemingly satisfying duplex which seems like their cup of tea. Adam is a writer, so he needs concentration, and Nancy is a magazine designer, so she needs some soft work time as well.
The duplex they choose is very old fashioned and very well built, but upstairs lives an old woman named Mrs. Connelly (Essell). She is rent controlled, and she loves to watch TV at the max volume late at night and loves to make Alex and Nancy do her chores. She is a frail old woman, and vulnerable and so sweet looking that, naturally, if they don't help the woman out Alex and Nancy will feel guilty and cold-hearted.
For the first thirty minutes I found these characters quite amusing, but then their low brow antics and some of the film's gross out humor goes way to far. The scene of them fixing Mrs. Connelly's sink is disgusting and unnecessary. I expected DeVito to have a bit more sense of real comedy rather than getting the cheapest laughs from the cheapest jokes.
After the thirty minute mark and as we slowly approach the hour mark we begin to realize Duplex keeps spitting the same tiresome and boring jokes we've seen so many times before. The old lady doesn't do much but make them do chores and play the TV too loud. While that is incredibly annoying for everyone, that is pretty much the extent of Mrs. Connelly's torture. I was hoping for more destruction of their personal lives and property.
Duplex is a one-note comedy, and while it opens rather promising introducing likable characters, the overall chemistry between Stiller and Barrymore isn't strong enough to believe and doesn't fit the requirements to sustain a ninety minute run time. It begins to drag on to meet the limits of a normal film. I appreciated Eileen Essell's portrayal of the elderly woman and how she can get to be such a royal pain, and was glad it was done at the point where you really see her as the true antagonist of the film. It isn't the worst I've seen, but it truly is far from any level of good humor.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, and Eileen Essell. Directed by: Danny DeVito.