Movie Notes: Flirting With Disaster

June 14th, 2009

= 4 stars

Starring Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni, Patricia Arquette
Directed by David O. Russel

Synopsis

Adopted Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller), nervous about new fatherhood with wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette), goes on a soul-searching journey to find his real parents.

The Good

• A strong core of comedy with Ben Stiller in an early role, playing a nervous wreck with occasional neurotic outbursts, and Tea Leoni as Tina Kalb, the hot, incompetent social worker that will eventually cause Mel to cave in to temptation. Layer additional crazies on top: Mary Tyler Moore, Lily Tomlin, and Alan Alda as Mel’s insane family. Also add Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) as a gay ATF agent, and David Patrick Kelley (Twin Peaks) as a psycho truck driver, mistaken for Mel’s father.
• Deep male insecurities are hilariously exploited here, fatherhood keeping one from realizing their life’s ambitions — or just being hindered from relations other women, being a “bitch boy.”
• Small details never fail to crack me up — the oral sex running joke, a volleyball-playing twin that gives Mel a dorky T-shirt, the two gay ATF agents, the “shit kings,” the ridiculously physical Stiller / Leoni kiss in the hallway with a carefully placed dock kit bag, and Lonnie, the sulky piano-playing step brother, armpit licking sibling… oh, and that drug trip.
• The ultimate message is any search for fulfillment outside one’s self is almost certainly doomed to failure — especially if that fulfillment relies on another person. People are notoriously unreliable.

The Bad

• The dark humor and cynical take on life, family, and love might turn off some.

Conclusion

I find Flirting With Disaster funner today, knowing Stiller’s diminished funny product since. In addition, there are enough surreal details and strange supporting roles that entertained me during a fourth viewing. Highly recommended.

IMDB: Flirting With Disaster
Wikipedia: Flirting With Disaster
Rotten Tomatoes: Flirting With Diaster 85%