Directed by
Shawn Levy
88 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
Date Night
Synopsis: Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carrell & Tina Fey) are your average thirty-something suburban couple from New Jersey. Their lives have descended into marital humdrum with work and kids draining all excitement. Once a week they attempt a date night, where they go out, hoping to reignite some spark. One night, hoping to get into one of New York’s fancy restaurants and being turned down, they take someone else’s reservation and a serious case of mistaken identity sets in. Chased by gangsters, encountering corrupt cops, and turning for help to one of Claire’s old real estate contacts, Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg), the Fosters experience a date to remember!For my taste, Date Night is actually pretty funny stuff brought to better-than-average standard by the excellent comedic pairing of Steve Carrell and Tina Fey. I wasn’t very enamoured of Levy’s surprise hit films Night At The Museum and its inevitable sequel, but this one moves along at a cracking pace, with plenty of wit, action and outright laughs, for most of its highly compact running time.
The initial set up is really fun and something plenty of jaded married couples will relate to. With their sex life suffering grievously, thanks to kids, gruelling work schedules and the like, the Fosters really do seem on the slippery slope to a major marital malaise. Some of the other factors add to the credibility – Claire has lost faith in Phil’s ability to ever be “in the driver’s seat” in any aspect of their lives, while he feels that she is overly controlling. (Familiar, anyone??)
Carrell and Fey (best known for the TV series 30 Rock) both have impeccable comedic timing and work exceptionally well together. The rest of the cast add just the right balance to the fun – Taraji P Henson as one of the few straight cops, William Fichtner plays the sleazy District Attorney, James Franco has a terrific bit part as a hippy-cum-crim blackmailer, Mark Ruffalo is wasted in a tiny role whilst Mark Wahlberg almost steals the show as Holbrooke, seen mostly without a shirt, buffed, sexy and implacable - a great foil for the manic Fosters who keep pounding on his door pleading for help.
I’ve never been a big rap for car chase scenes but there is one in here that almost seems new and fresh – I’ve never seen it done like this before and I really fell about laughing. (Perhaps I just have a warped sense of humour, but I heard a lot of laughter from other critics at the preview I attended.)
Once the Fosters’ night turns to one of high action, very little is believable (who in hell can get about the way Fey does in her high heels?). But who cares? I really liked the characters, and cared what happened to them and what a nice surprise to get delivered some serious entertainment in a modern comedy!
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