“Date Night” stars a dream pairing for fans of Star World must-see TV: “The Office’s” Steve Carell and “30 Rock’s” Tina Fey as New Jersey suburbanites who, in a case of mistaken identity, find themselves mired in a blackmail conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. As inspired as their casting might seem, however, it’s also one of the things about the film that doesn’t quite work. Not that “Date Night” is not funny. It is the comedy slathered on like homemade frosting to hold this crumbling boxed cake of a plot together.

Amid working full-time, raising two kids and attending their regular nearly all-female book club, suburban New Jersey couple Phil (Carell) and Claire (Fey) Foster still make time for a date night once a week at the local Teaneck Tavern, where they invariably order potato skins and talk about work, children, schedules and errands. Both actors are married parents in real life, but they don’t play them on TV, and it’s a little hard, especially at first, to buy them as a boring suburban couple. On her show, Fey in particular epitomizes the polar opposite of a desperate housewife, a single city girl so nerdy she’s hip. The same snarky sense of humor on display when she and Carell (and here they are Fey and Carell, not their fictional counterparts) mock their fellow diners doesn’t work coming out of the mouths of a real estate agent and a tax consultant.

This disconnect is less troublesome once the action picks up. When they find out that another couple in their circle of friends is getting divorced, the Fosters decide, out of boredom more than anything else, to spice up date night with dinner in the city. Too late to get a table at the hot new eatery Claw, they take a no-show couple’s reservation, a decision that inspires moral outrage from everyone they explain this to throughout the night and are mistaken for the Tripplehorns, a couple with a flash drive that they are apparently holding for ransom. Carell’s and Fey’s brand of humor plays better now. What works is how stubbornly out of touch they are, from Claire not knowing what a flash drive is to Phil’s Michael Scott-esque tongue-tied relationship with language.

Meanwhile, one of the highlights of “Date Night” is the supporting players the Fosters encounter throughout the night, including go-to gangster Ray Liotta as a mob boss; James Franco and Mila Kunis as the criminal couple whose reservation the Fosters take and who are at a remarkably similar point in their own relationship; and especially Mark Wahlberg as a former client of Claire’s who refuses to put on a shirt despite being repeatedly asked a situation rife with opportunities for Carell to riff.

What’s supposed to be funny about this scenario is its plausibility that a boring couple from the suburbs with limited connections in the city really could orchestrate an exit from such a mess. So when the plot stretches credibility and it’s no longer clear why they’re even doing what they’re doing, the movie loses its appeal. Moreover, other than the impression that their lives are generally blah, the major issues in the marriage that Claire can’t trust Phil to take care of anything, for example are not established outright but suggested via dialogue, ultimately diminishing the emotional impact of the climax.

Nonetheless, you might find yourself laughing despite yourself, and more than the movie deserves. It’s a good laugh in the end.

credits: FoxMovies | MovingPitures | Yahoo! Movies Singapore

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Official Movie Poster

Singapore Date: 8th April 2010 Language: English Running Time: 87 mins Rating: PG Genre: Action | Comedy | Romance Tagline: One ordinary couple. One little white lie. Starring: Tina Fey, James Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Wahlberg, Steve Carell Directed by: Shawn Levy Company: 21 Laps Entertainment Singapore Distributor: 20th Century Fox iZone Rating: 7/10 Official Website : Date Night

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Movie Trailer

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