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FAILURE TO LAUNCH Chemistry set missing in the “Failure” Popcornreel.com Film Review: "Failure to Launch" By Omar P.L. Moore/March 12, 2006
Matthew McConaughey plays a 35-year-old man who still lives at home with his parents (Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw – Mr. Bradshaw steals this movie). The parents hire a home evacuation guru (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the hopes that she will successfully lure him out of the house to go and live with her.
McConaughey’s character frequently hears it from his two male buddies who regale him with tales of the bliss of independent living. Meanwhile, Ms. Parker is beginning to see that not only is evicting the young man from his parents’ house a challenge, but the avoidance of falling in love with him is as well. There are few laughs in a tepid opening hour that drags, but the laughs come more frequently in the film’s second half, much of them supplied courtesy of Mr. Bradshaw’s natural humor and physical comedy.
“Failure to Launch” is a perfect title that aptly describes the structure of the film itself: it never seems to get off the ground. There are one-too many repeat gags of the McConaughey character being bitten, stung or otherwise maimed by an animal/mammal of some sort. A side plot about a girlfriend who passed away and left Mr. McConaughey’s character with her son seems tacked on in the effort to create some emotional connect, is contrived.
Most glaring of all however, is the
chemistry between Ms. Parker and Mr. McConaughey. Not for one moment is there a
genuine feeling that these two characters have love forces that
electro-magnetize themselves to each other. Parker seems stiff and awkward
through much of the film, while McConaughey lacks some of the appetite and verve
he has shown in other films of a similar nature, such as “How to Lose a Guy in
10 Days”. Perhaps Kate Hudson could have been an effective substitute, but even
then, the film would not be rescued from its own malaise. The pacing and the
surrounding story lines, plus the near ridiculous plan to patch things up near
the end is a weak and uninspired payoff attempt. “Failure to Launch” is a role reversal of sorts, of the successful “Hitch” film that starred Will Smith last year. In that film, the lead is a dating consultant, and he falls for a woman who is considered date proof. At least in that film the actors were really having fun and enjoying the filmmaking process, and not wishing that they were elsewhere.
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com. All Rights Reserved.
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