To speak or not to speak - ‘The Dilemma’ Review
I guess I should start off by saying that I didn’t hate the
movie, but it’s a classic example of the product being worth vastly less than
the sum of its parts.
There is tremendous talent behind The Dilemma, and while unfortunately it’s not an uncommon occurrence, it’s always a unique kind of disappointment to feel so let down by a movie with so much experience and talent behind it.
There is the seed of a compelling drama, maybe even a dramedy (I hate that word but I’m using it anyway) underneath the script somewhere, but unfortunately Ron Howard banks the entire thing on the comic presence of his actors, freighting their characters with unappealing personalities and forcing them to try to wring laughs out of stuff that just isn’t funny.
I’ve heard it likened to laughing at a car accident, and it’s an apt comparison.
Kevin James plays Nick Brannen, a brilliant automotive engineer (this is quite a stretch from the Segway-riding Paul Blart Mall Cop, by the way), who’s working on the design for a “cool” version of the electric car to replace the “gay” ones already on the road (someone needs to review their Screenwriting Screwups 101 textbook). And Vince Vaughn plays his blowhard friend and business partner Ronny, which is not a far cry from his previous roles.
Just before a major presentation of their creation to Chrysler, Ronny sees Nick’s wife Geneva (Winona Ryder) making out with some other guy (Channing Tatum), and hence arrives the aforementioned dilemma.
Should Ronny tell Nick what he saw and possibly cause fatal damage to his marriage and possibly even their business deal with Chrysler by throwing his crucial business partner’s life into turmoil?
I’ll just presume to state the obvious and say yes, of course he should tell him, right? Right? Am I wrong? Or at least tell her.
Here’s another hypothetical situation for you: You’re
married, and one day you discover that your spouse has been having an affair
for some length of time. Shattered, you go to your best friend for emotional
support, only to discover that your friend has long since known about the
affair but never told you. 
The dilemma: Do you remain friends with the person that kept such vital information from you, or do you calmly explain that because of their dishonesty, you have now lost the trust in your relationship with your spouse and with your best friend.
But, you know, that’s just me. Unfortunately, the movie exists because it has characters that constantly make the wrong decisions, stretching its thin premise into a two-hour movie. It’s the comedy equivalent of the frightened blonde who hears a scary noise upstairs while alone in the house at night and decides to go up to investigate rather than running from the house, passing up the knife rack on the way and arming herself with a banana peel or something. Drives me nuts.
The other problem is that the story deals too closely with some very real and very serious issues, which just aren’t funny and I feel like there really isn’t any reason to try to make them funny. Things like addiction and drugs and gambling obsessions and prostitution.
Actually, I take that back. Drugs can be funny. Pineapple Express killed me. But you know what I mean, right?
Unexpectedly solid performances from Winona Ryder and
Jennifer Connelly and especially Channing Tatum unfortunately aren’t quite
enough to put the film back on balance. It’s marketed as a comedy but fails
because of dramatic elements that could have been used in a vastly better
drama. Ah well.
The script has some quality elements but is inherently flawed because it doesn’t seem to know which direction it wants to go, and it throws things in like the otherwise hugely talented Queen Latifah making a jarring cameo which comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere.
But ultimately, it’s still better than the average romantic comedy, and vastly better than the average romantic drama out there, despite an occasionally painful lack of focus and a need for several more rewrites. Worth watching, but wait for the DVD…
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