Tag (2018)

[StevePulaski]

Tag (2018)
Directed by: Jeff Tomsic

From left: Hannibal Buress, Jake Johnson, Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, and Isla Fisher.

Rating: ★★½

Tag bears the kind of concept at which you roll your eyes until the film's paratext informs — or rather, convinces — you it is indeed based on a true story. The film is adapted from Russell Adams' 2013 article, published in "The Wall Street Journal," poetically called "It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being It." Adams wrote about how him and nine of his friends have taken one month out of the year, for the last 23 years, to play an ongoing, no-holds-barred game of tag. They'd hide in bushes, catch their friends off guard at work, and go through the trouble (or fun) of disguising themselves all for the purpose of engaging in a group activity. The irony was the game didn't make them want to get away from one another, as the concept of "tag" would imply; it brought them closer together and gave them a reason to hang out with each other as they headed into middle-age.

While a documentary, I'd argue, would be better suited to truly address the insanity of Adams and his friends' antics that still persist to this very day, a studio comedy would theoretically be the next best thing. But Tag doesn't get to the heart of the friends' motivation to continue the game, nor does it have the same energetic zeal as Game Night, as it follows that terrific film by only a few months and inevitably suffers by comparison.

Director Jeff Tomsic, who was at the helm of a couple Comedy Central series, instead rounds up an elite cast of comedians almost effectively distracting us from the film's underwhelming script. The reliable talents of Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, and Jeremy Renner are cast as the loyal group of pals who take part in this month-long, breathless affair. The "leader" of them (or the one with whom we spend the most time) is Hoagie (Helms), who has become so absorbed in the game his overly competitive wife, Anna (Isla Fisher), aids him despite not being able to play, for one of the first rules the friends made was that girls cannot play. His army? Callahan (Hamm), a very successful businessman, "Chilli" (Johnson), a divorced burnout, and Sable (Buress), a reserved, quietly existential soul.

But then there's Jerry (Renner, who acted with two broken arms for much of the production), the only player in the game who has yet to be tagged after two decades. He's getting married at the end of the month and plans to retire as the undefeated champion after one last month-long rendezvous. The lengths Jerry will go not to be tagged, along with his evolved senses that allow him to navigate potential traps are so superhuman they'd put Hawkeye to shame. The film revolves around the majority of the group working together in order to accomplish what has yet to ever happen. Also along for the ride is Rebecca (Annabelle Wallis), a columnist for the "Wall Street Journal," fittingly enough, whose interview with Callahan is interrupted when Hoagie gets a job as a janitor and tags his buddy when he least expects it. That gives you an idea of how serious this game is.

The enthusiasm Helms, Hamm, and the rest of the gang bring is contagious. It rises above the writing, which tries way too hard to incorporate broad humor and juvenile shenanigans when the premise, on its own, is already hilarious — especially since we're not dealing with a Happy Madison cast. Writers Rob McKittrick (Waiting...) and Mark Steilen evidently have some self-consciousness about the material at hand, which is why conversations between the friends occasionally trail off to become about genitals or other related topics.

Isla Fisher's character is probably the most memorable because she is distinctively playing against type with an aggressive personality. It's a stark contrast from someone like Rachel McAdams and her awesome performance in Game Night with her meanness working against McAdams' softness. The rest of the cast plays to their own strengths: Helms is the lovable wimp, Hamm is the buttoned up suit who isn't afraid to let loose if the occasion calls, Buress is awkward but likably so, and Johnson clearly inhaled a lot of pot-smoke and knocked back one too many Anti-Heros when working with Joe Swanberg in order to be so good in his role.

In fact, it's Johnson who is involved in some of the film's funniest moments, which comes when McKittrick and Steilen show the game compelling the relatively amiable friends to act suspicious or do utterly repugnant things. There's a moment at Jerry's wedding party where Chilli is so convinced the entire gathering is a shame that he begins quietly insulting party-guests to Callahan, which is so off-kilter it just works, and another where he says some pretty off-color things about a potential miscarriage that achieve the rare but oh-so appreciated "bad laugh." You get the feeling the writers were a bit looser when concocting things for Chilli to say, but were too concentrated on the mainstream comic zeitgeist for the others that they forgot to make them distinctive, they all-but blend in with one another.

The viewer, on the other hand, is essentially Wallis' journalist character: a faceless vessel, all but inessential to the plot, who is dragged around endlessly into this gleeful celebration of adolescent fun. More could've been done with her character. We're left wondering what other possibilities she might've offered.

Tag's closing credits show footage of the real guys behind the game and it's legitimately funny, heartfelt stuff that affirms that the ensuing silliness was all a product of a brotherly bond. Rather than cap off an exciting comedy, it instead serves as a reminder of what could've been.

Starring: Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Jeremy Renner, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Leslie Bibb, and Rashida Jones. Directed by: Jeff Tomsic.