Swingers

Doug Liman’s breakout film which was co-produced and written by Jon Favreau is a laddish comedy about a love-lorn male and his largely feckless buddies, the swingers of the film’s title, men-children who inexplicably don’t have a job but spend their days playing video games and golf and their nights cruising L.A. bars and parties trying to get laid.

Favreau plays Mike a stand-up comic and would-be actor who is still pining for his ex-girlfriend six months after she dumped him. His best friend (Vince Vaughn) tries to cheer him up by getting him to go out and meet women but Mike invariably makes a hash of things.

That’s pretty much the plot of a comedy which is not of the ha-ha kind (though there is one very funny scene with Mike trying to leave a cool message on a girl’s answering machine) but in its best moments engages thanks to Favreau's  performance as the self-absorbed melancholic although Vaughn as a slick ladies’ man is tiresome in almost equal measure (Ron Livingston and Patrick Van Horn appear as Mike's other buddies), whilst the slim storyline is spiced with tongue-in-cheek quotations from Goodfellas and Reservoir Dogs and bolstered with live swing music provided by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,

 

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