Ben Stiller is playing the kind of character Adam Sandler should be playing. Not an idiot savant, mind you, but a grown-up jerk who has his heart in the right place. Stiller is still flirting with disaster and it is a joy to watch him in "Meet the Parents," a chaotic yet thoroughly restrained howler in the tradition of "Father of the Bride." When I think of Stiller in this film, I think of Murphy's Law - whatever can go wrong will go wrong.
Stiller plays Greg Focker (!), a Jewish male nurse who is ready to propose to his sweetly precious girlfriend, Pam (Teri Polo), a schoolteacher. Problem is she catches him at the wrong time when she mentions that her father, who is hard to please, has agreed to her other sister's wedding proposal to be married on their front lawn. Naturally, Greg and Pam go to meet her parents on Long Island, NY, to attend the wedding. Enter Pam's father (Robert De Niro), who pretends to be a retired florist to cover for his ex-CIA activities, and Pam's mother (Blythe Danner) who has a tender smile, even in the midst of chaos. Everything goes wrong from the start of what should be an enjoyable weekend. Greg screws up the family prayer at the dinner table when he hilariously mentions how to milk a cat (he also tells bad jokes). There is the running gag of De Niro's prized pet, a cat named Mr. Jinx, whom De Niro considers as much a family member as anyone else. Mr. Jinx has been trained to relieve itself in a toilet, though Greg suggests at one point that the cat could probably flush too. Then there is the whole septic tank incident, not to mention Pam's ex-boyfriend (Owen Wilson) who lives luxuriously and invites them to his home to show off. An excruciating lie-detector test followed by the usual misunderstandings about marijuana, and the constant use of Greg's last name ad nauseam.
Stiller is pitch-perfect as Greg - every scene he is in made me laugh louder than most comedies this year (and his resume is not bad either, from his roles in "Reality Bites" to "Flirting With Disaster" to "Mystery Men"). But what makes Stiller such a natural at being made a mockery is his vulnerability, whether it is seeing him dressed in pajamas when walking into his possible future in-laws at breakfast time or his slow burn leading to a completely frazzled condition in front of De Niro's hidden video cameras - he is the clumsy nerd with a core of humanity. We may not always understand his motives but we can't help but feel sorry for him, even if he spray paints a cat's tail!
De Niro is at his comical best relaxing with smoothness and calmness, the likes of which we have not seen since "Wag the Dog." De Niro does not force the audience to laugh with him, he merely plays it straight and has great comic timing. I cannot imagine a more suitable foil than De Niro's coiled charm to Stiller's maddening anxiety.
The Pam character and the ex-fiance are two characters that do not fit in to the frothy mix. Teri Polo is so bland and forgettable as Greg's girlfriend that she hardly seems worth all the trouble - that may be cruel but consider what someone with far more personality and range could have done with this role, say Lisa Kudrow or Uma Thurman? Owen Wilson also seems tired and flat as the ex, and it is generally a wasted, unnecessary role considering there is no payoff - he might dislike or disapprove of Pam's new love but there is not a single scene where he expresses that emotion.
I would have loved more intimate scenes between Danner and De Niro (the most unlikely pair of actors to play a married couple), but "Meet the Parents" is quite a laughfest from start to finish. And watching De Niro come up against Stiller is a marvelous sight and a true laugh riot to witness. Let's see those two again on screen soon, and Mr. Jinx too.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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