What a Lousy "Date Night"

I was all set to watch "Caché" last night, but I ended up at a $2 second-run theater watching "Date Night" with a Tina Fey enthusiast. I really wish I had said no. I didn't want to see this movie. Nothing about it came off right in the trailers, not the stilted dialogue, not the physical hijinks, and not the middle aged malaise that is supposed to be plaguing the main characters. I desperately hoped that this was one of those cases where all the really obnoxious jokes found their way into the trailer to play to same crowd that likes Adam Sandler movies, but the actual movie would have a little more substance. Alas, this was not to be.

Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most lauded comedic stars on television for a reason. Not even the limp noodle plot this movie foisted on them could smother their charm and likability, though it tries its best. Fey and Carell play Phil and Claire Foster, who are long married, live in New Jersey with a pair of small children, and have fallen into a typical, boring suburban routine of work, childcare, and mundane social engagements. Every Tuesday they have a date night, which is as rote and familiar as everything else in their lives.

After their similarly frustrated friends announce their divorce, Phil decides to shake things up and takes Claire out to Manhattan on their next date night, where they impulsively steal the reservation of a couple of no-shows at a trendy restaurant. Said no-shows turn out to be mixed up with theft and blackmail, and the Fosters are mistaken for the criminals by other criminals. One thing leads to another, and Phil and Claire are forced to run around Manhattan for the rest of the film, trying to clear their names and get home to New Jersey.

Fey and Carell are a great match onscreen, and I would love to seen them paired up again with some better material. There are a few early scenes in the restaurant where they surreptitiously mock other couples and make up snarky conversations for them, that are genuinely fun. The emotional moments work, the rapport between the couple is right, and we root for them to sort out their marital issues and find a happy ending together. But so much of the movie is concerned with car chases, gun battles, and bargain basement plot twists, it's a chore to sift through the refuse for the good bits.

Perhaps the worst of "Date Night's" cinematic crimes is that it keeps trying to paint the Fosters as long past their prime just because they've hit forty and are in a domestic rut. The actors get a lot of mileage out of playing up the insecurities of their characters, but it's obvious that Tina Fey and Steve Carell are both attractive people, and their characters are successful, intelligent, and well off. Alas, they're surrounded by a sea of shallow morons who keep pecking at their self-worth and trying to drag them down to their level. It's like watching an existential zombie movie at times.

As for the comedy, you have a few moments that are passable, but the film only goes for the laziest, most obvious, jokes, relies heavily on celebrity cameos, and there are several sequences that don't work at all. A third act detour to a burlesque club results in one of the most awkward, uncomfortable dance scenes I've ever seen - and not in a good way. The funniest moments of the entire film, without hyperbole, are during the end credits where we get to watch Fey ad-libbing her dialogue and Carell blowing his takes.

Part of my disappointment comes from being able to see both of these actors in their own, far more competently scripted sitcoms every week on NBC's Thursday night lineup. Carell is the headliner of "The Office," and Tina Fey not only stars, but writes and produces "30 Rock." Both have successfully straddled the line between television and film work, and previously featured in far better cinematic offerings. This should have been an opportunity for the two of them to combine their comedic powers for something more ambitious, but instead this feels like a real step down for both actors.

I never thought I'd see the day when TV stars taking on a movie project would mean they were slumming it, but now we've got "Date Night," and there's no other way to describe it.