FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (1996) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: David O. Russel Starring: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins
David O. Russel's debut film, "Spanking the Monkey" (no jokes about the title, guys, it's old), devastated my emotionally, and I'm still not over it. It was the most intense character study I've ever seen and depressed me beyond belief. His sophomore film, however, made me laugh so hard that I'm still not over the physical damage I did to my gut while watching this. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this film is a screwball film that just gets funnier and funnier as it goes on, and ends on an even funnier note.
The seemingly standard screwball plot deals with a grown man (Ben Stiller) searching for his real parents, since he was adopted. His parents (Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal, who were so funny together, that they were forced to appear on several episodes of co-star Tea Leoni's sitcom, "The Naked Truth") are outraged when he announces this, and introduces them to his slim, slightly neurotic adoption agency helper or whatever she is (Tea). The thing that caused him to bring this up is the birth of their son (his wife is Patricia Arquette, by the way), and is inability to name him for that anal reason.
So he embarks on a trek with his wife and Tea to find his parents and rejoin them, but finds out that the agency screwed up and sends them to the wrong people twice before winding them up with his real parents (Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin). What's great about this is that everyone you meet is nothing like they first seem. They run into Patricia's old male pal from high school (Josh Brolin) who's a U.S. Marshall, and turns out to be married to his male partner who suffers from hysterically high amounts of hypertension (wonderfully and memorably played by Richard Jenkins). And, of course, his real parents turn out to be drug addicts who brew LSD in their basement but are still tight about their "non-smoking household."
There's also a lot of partner swapping, as Brolin and Arquette begin to go at it, but in Brolin's fetish way (wait till you find out what his favorite part of the female body is, which spurns one of the funniest scenes in 90s cinema). And Tea and Ben go at it, although neither is really sure if they should. One scene they just give eachother little pecks, then jump on eachother simultaneously.
Then there's the direction and writing by Russel, who certainly has a knack for breaking taboos (like incest and masturbation in "Spanking the Monkey" - title doesn't say it all), shocks the audience and causes them to laugh hysterically, a great feat if you've seen his first film since he drained all emotions from his audience till they were silently depressed for months afterwards. Here, he shows us many big taboos: like the Brolin fetish; the Brolin/Jenkins gay relationship; openly talking about felatio; the truth about B&Bs; and we even get to see Mary Tyler Moore pull up her shirt and show us her bra, as she brags about how perfect her breasts are. This film isn't flirting with disaster, much less crashing into it.
But Russel holds it all together, and by the ending where a hundred things are going on, and you can't decide which one is funnier, he still manages to hold a tight grasp on things, and even ends on a note of semi-sentimentalism, which isn't even cringe-inducing. And, of course, he shows some more shocking moments during the end credits, where we get to see all the end couples in bed in their numerous ways, and all with that lovely prop: the baby.
This film is a lovely companion piece to "Spanking the Monkey": brings you down from your depression, by showing you some of the same taboos but in a different sense. So, if you ever go ahead and rent "Monkey," make sure you couple it with this one. You'll laugh your ass off.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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