Along Came Polly

1/17/04 - Review

Ben Stiller stars as insurance risk assessor, Rueben Feffer, in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly.  Rueben believed that is life was turning out like he had planned: he had a good job, and he was getting married to a very beautiful girl.  Boy did he have it all wrong.  While he was on the honeymoon, his newly wed wife, Lisa (Debra Messing), falls for French scuba instructor Claude.  Heartbroken, Reuben heads back to New York alone and depressed. 

His best man, Sandy Lyle (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) tries to cheer him up by taking him to an art show.  While there, Rueben bumps into an old student government friend from Junior High School, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston).  Rueben was planning on playing it safe but he feels as if she was brought into his life for a reason so he asks her our, much to the disagreement from Sandy.  Even though Polly and Reuben hit if off, Rueben is forced to take many different risks such as eating spicy food and Salsa dancing.  This is a guy who measures risk for a living and tries to avoid it at all costs.     

Everything goes great with Polly until Lisa comes back to town.  Now he has to decide who he would rather be with.  He can choose Lisa and take the risk free road or take Polly and play it by year.  Meanwhile, Reuben is trying to find a benefit of insuring a high-risk insurance prospect who does everything to the extreme.  No matter who is chooses, Rueben’s life has been altered and now he can accept some risk. 

You’ve seen one, you have seen ‘em all.  Along Came Polly is another movie in the long line of romantic comedies, where the guy gets girl, loses girl, and gets her again.  Several of them come out a year but the genre seems all too played.  Granted, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Anniston are great actors, which gives the film a unique feel.    

Like I said, the story is simple.  Stiller’s character gets the girl, loses her, gets another, and then loses her.  Sounds really complex huh?  Even so, the film is still watch able and at times it is really funny.  Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ben Stiller play basketball was refreshingly funny.  There were some other funny scenes but you feel as if there is a funny moment coming but it never does.  The film seems to be gasping for air because of the lack of new ideas and sub plots. 

Ben Stiller is no stranger to these types of movies.  There’s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents dealt with the same subject matter.  Sadly for him, those two movies were much better than this one.  He is getting really good at handling rejection and depression from these romantic comedies though. 

Jennifer Aniston is really hot and that’s all I have to say about that.  It seems bizarre though that a flaky and “hippie like” girl would find attraction with Stiller, and vice versa.  They say opposites attract however. 

Along with the two leading actors, there is also Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Stiller’s child actor buddy, Sandy. He was absolutely hilarious and mouthed off a line that people will be talking about for a long time.  Apparently, when you fart and shit comes out, it is called “sharted.”  Pretty good term if you ask me.  I felt that he gave the movie a bit of spark which it definitely needed.  I could see traces of Jack Black in him.  Alec Baldwin was good with the manly accent as Stiller’s boss.  Debra Messing added to the great cast with her excellent portrayal as Stiller’s wife.  Another movie where the cast is exceptional but the movie does not compare. 

No doubt, Along Came Polly is a good date movie, but for all intensive purposes, it is just a very average movie.  Ben Stiller and company do a good job to try and make the movie better than it really is.  The movie is funny at times, but in the end it’s just another romantic comedy with the same plot.  It is not bad, but it is played out. 

Grade

What do you think?