You, Me and Dupree
Happy newlywed couple Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) Peterson are getting ready to enjoy their new lives together. The happiness is thrown out of order when Carl's best friend, Randy Dupree (Owen Wilson), moves into their house after he loses his job and his home. Dupree is a nice guy and always has good intentions, but he's also a slacker, and has a tendency to float from job to job, making permanent employment difficult. What's supposed to be a week-long living arrangement until Dupree can get back on his feet turns into something much longer, and Carl and Molly quickly find their patience being tested by this houseguest who refuses to leave. As the months pass by, Dupree and Molly start to bond when Carl becomes wrapped up in his job and the mounting pressures of his boss (Michael Douglas), who just happens to be Molly's father, and likes to keep a particularly close eye on his son-in-law. With his wife seemingly smitten by the charming slacker Dupree, Carl begins to question his relationship with both his best friend and his spouse.
You, Me and Dupree is a movie that works in bits and pieces, surrounded by long stretches where not much of interest happens. The first half of the movie is the part used in the film's ad campaign, and also just happens to be the weakest. Dupree comes across as an oafish, almost childlike man who is completely inconsiderate of others, such as when he changes the couple's answering machine message without telling them, orders pay channels like HBO on their TV, and sets fire to their house when trying to entertain a girl with candlelight love making. The movie goes to such extremes to make us hate the man that it comes as somewhat of an awkward surprise when Dupree realizes the error of his ways about halfway through, and sets about righting his wrongs. The movie seems to switch gears here, turning Dupree into a likeable goofball, and turning the previously reasonable and mild-mannered Carl into a selfish and violent jerk who yells at people for no reason, and is taken by fits of rage where his father-in-law must bash him on the head with a candlestick in order to protect himself. This uneven tone is what ultimately prevents the film from working. There's just not enough reason for either of the two characters to make such drastic change in character. Yeah, Carl's under a lot of pressure with his job and his father-in-law/boss hating him, but he still seems to take it to extremes sometimes. And even though Dupree becomes a much more likeable character during the second half, his miraculous transformation is given very little explanation. By the time the movie reaches the point where Dupree is going all out to save the fading love between Carl and Molly, we begin to wonder if these are the same people we saw at the beginning of the story.
While the shift in tone may be awkward, I must admit the film becomes better because of it. The crude and unfunny sex and bathroom humor of the first half quickly wore out its welcome with me, and had me prematurely labeling the film as a total failure. But when the movie tries to make Dupree come across as more of a human instead of a cartoon imitation of a 30-year-old man who hasn't matured since high school, it actually started to work a little. A lot of this has to do with the lead performance of Owen Wilson, who is quite charming and likeable during this half of the film. Yes, he's pretty much playing the same goofy guy next door type that he's played in numerous other comedies, but I must admit, he does it well. A scene where he goes to an elementary school on Career Day, and talks to the kids about how some people never find their path in life is actually quite honest, and may even hit close to home with some people. This half of the story also held the biggest laughs for me, whereas the first half held virtually none. It almost makes you wish that first-time screenwriter, Mike LeSieur, had kept this same focus throughout the entire script. He's obviously skilled at mixing comedy and drama without one overpowering the other, and without falling into the trap of sappy sentiment. You get the sense that the screenplay probably needed another rewrite or two before going in front of the cameras. Either that, or Mr. LeSieur needed to decide on what kind of movie he was trying to make.Aside from Owen Wilson, the rest of the main cast are generally strong all around. Kate Hudson is pretty and likeable, and gets to have some good scenes with both of her male co-stars. I just wish her relationship with Michael Douglas' character was strengthened, so it would make more sense why she would defend him when he was obviously upsetting her husband so. Matt Dillon is fine, but seems to be at the mercy of the uneven screenplay, his character switching from understanding and sensitive nice guy to ranting psychopath, depending on whatever mood he's supposed to be in at the given scene. As for Michael Douglas, you get the sense there was a big missed opportunity here to send up his usual corporate slimeball image that he's played in so many films. He gets a couple laughs here and there, but they still could have done much more with his character.
All and all, You, Me and Dupree is a largely hit and miss affair that just doesn't hit as often as it should. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but in order to achieve the widespread audience appeal that it obviously seeks, it just doesn't try hard enough. The film's two halves also don't flow together as well as they should, though its certainly not as hard to swallow as the shift in tone in last month's Click. Careening wildly from juvenile toilet humor to scenes of honesty and sincerity, the movie never quite finds solid ground. As it is, Dupree can only coast so long on the likeable performance of Wilson before the whole thing stars to crumble apart, thanks to the shaky screenplay it was built on.
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