Daddy's Home

With Will Ferrell's usual filmmaking partner in crime, Adam McKay, off doing the brilliant darkly comic drama, The Big Short, Ferrell had to rely on Sean Anders (Horrible Bosses 2, We're the Millers) to helm his latest comedy, Daddy's Home.  The result ends up being a lot like most of Mr. Anders' film work up to now - A few scattered laughs, but nothing really all that special. 

The movie reunites Ferrell with Mark Wahlberg, who previously worked wonderfully together in the very funny The Other Guys.  This time, both stars are given much less to do, and even less to work with.  Oh, Ferrell does fine.  He's basically playing the same nice guy loser who keeps on getting humiliated to comedic effect that he's perfected in a variety of other films.  It's Wahlberg who seems to be flaying here.  His character, Dusty Mayron, is not so much a character as it is an idea.  His motives and intentions seem to change from scene to scene, and the movie never really seems to have a handle on him.  Therefore, Wahlberg just kind of flounders with the character.  It's not his fault, necessarily.  He's only playing the character the way it's been written.  But his part has been written badly, and the movie suffers because of it.

Ferrell plays Brad Whitaker, a bit of a wimp, but an all around nice guy who's always dreamed of having children, but unfortunately can't, due to an unfortunate accident a few years ago.  As the film opens, Brad has a new wife in the lovely Sara (Linda Cardellini, horribly underused here), and the family he's always dreamed of with her two adorable little children from a previous marriage.  It's taken a long time, but Sara's kids are finally starting to respect Brad, and see him as a father figure.  Even her young daughter Megan (Scarlett Estevez) is starting to draw happy family pictures again, instead of pictures of Brad lying decapitated or being tortured, while the rest of the family stands smiling nearby.  But then, Sara's ruggedly handsome and motorcycle-riding ex-husband Dusty (Wahlberg) comes strolling back into town, and seems intent on winning the favor of the kids all over again.  Brad finds himself engaged in an increasingly escalating war for the affection of the children, while poor Sara is forced to do nothing but stand in the background and wring her hands nervously as this all plays out.

Are there funny moments scattered throughout Daddy's Home?  Absolutely.  While everyone can pretty much predict what's going to happen when Brad tries to ride Dusty's massive motorcycle, the movie still gets off some great visual gags out of the idea.  There are also some one liners that caught me off guard and made me laugh now and then.  But, these are just isolated moments.  They never build into a fully satisfying comedy.  It's like the writers viewed this movie as a series of moments, instead of a cohesive whole.  The rivalry between Brad and Dusty is supposed to be what carries the film, but it never builds to the momentum that it needs.  We can't really take sides, because the two dads at the center of the plot are so thinly written.  Brad is a generic nice guy who screws up a lot.  And Dusty?  Well, as I mentioned, I don't think even the filmmakers have a handle on who he's supposed to be, because he changes whenever the screenplay requires him to.

Is Dusty a deadbeat dad who doesn't know how to show his affections?  That certainly seems to be the case when he brings home a blind, mangy and angry dog that seems to be at death's door that he found in a storm drain for the kids to play with.  And yet, a couple scenes later, we learn that Dusty is also friends with the celebrity players on a professional basketball team.  So, he must be some kind of hotshot.  He does extreme sports, he can build a massive tree house and skateboard ramp in an afternoon, and he's popular with everyone he meets.  And yet, we learn nothing about the guy.  We know that he's willing to scheme and con Brad into embarrassing or humiliating situations, but we don't fully get a handle on who he is.  We're supposed to laugh at how much better he seems to be at everything than Ferrell's character, but that's not enough to build a character around, and that's why Wahlberg seems kind of lost during a lot of scenes.  He's a good sport and he plays along, but he doesn't get any laughs.

Outside of Ferrell and Wahlberg, there are two supporting characters that get the most attention.  One of them is a handyman (Hannibal Buress), who is initially hired to fix the house after an accident, but oddly ends up moving in when he becomes fast friends with Dusty, and winds up slacking around the house all day.  The other is Brad's boss at work (played by Thomas Haden Church), who likes to tell inappropriate stories about his ex-wives during business meetings.  Both manage to get some laughs, but you get the sense that they're just there to liven up the movie when the two stars are not up to the challenge.  It feels like the movie is trotting them out in desperation.  It knows that the stars aren't enough to carry this thing, so it pulls out some weirdo side characters whenever it needs a little jolt.  The Other Guys proved that the two leads can work wonderfully together and carry a film.  This one  proves that they need the right material in order to do so.

Daddy's Home is not a lifeless comedy, but it is a fairly low energy and disposable one.  What laughs it does have feel like an oasis in a long, dry stretch of material that just doesn't work.  I have no doubt it will make money over the holiday vacation period.  I also have no doubt that most people who see it won't remember much about it by the end of January.

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