Ben Stiller headlined six films last year (Duplex, Starsky & Hutch, Envy, Dodgeball, Meet the Fockers), and Along Came Polly may be the worst. Inane, inorganic and predictable from the start, the film exists solely as a reason for the clumsy comedian to behave ineptly while simultaneously giving Jennifer Aniston some post-Friends big-screen exposure. Ruben (Stiller), an uptight risk assessment executive for an insurance company, is devastated when his wife cheats on him during their honeymoon, yet things get wackier after he falls for a devil-may-care free spirit named Polly (Aniston) who teaches him how to lighten up and love life. One might say it’s ironic for a movie about taking risks to wholly ignore its own advice and play it safe, but the film’s unimaginative nonsense really just feels pathetic. Phillip Seymour Hoffman seems to channel Jack Black as Ruben’s best friend, a has-been actor who once starred in a Breakfast Club-style teen drama, and he thankfully provides a few chuckles via his character’s horrendous athleticism. For the most part, though, Along Came Polly is just another lame Stiller attempt to rehash his There’s Something About Mary persona, replete with him suffering through humorless bathroom indignities (here an overflowing toilet), bowel embarrassments (spicy food irritates Ruben’s tummy!), and bodily fluid humiliations (during a basketball game in which he’s slimed by a hairy man’s sweaty chest).
D+ is entirely appropriate.
Those two had the worst on-screen romantic chemistry I've ever seen.
And what was PSH thinking? Was he doing this as a personal favor?
Posted by: Joe Grossberg | February 25, 2005 at 05:04 PM