USA, PG-13, 90 m, 2004
Directed by John Hamburg. Stars Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, et al. 

The romantic comedy Along Came Polly is about as formulaic as they come, but if you’re disposed to finding the familiar etiquette of the genre endearing (as I do), it’ll probably put you in good spirits. The film’s star, Ben Stiller, has always been adept at wringing humor from the discomfiting predicaments his little-man characters are thrust into, and Along Came Polly isn’t reticent about capitalizing on the actor’s comic forte. The movie traces ground not dissimilar from other Stiller vehicles, particularly There’s Something About Mary, but he and his talented co-stars lend some much-needed buoyancy to the predictable storyline. What’s most important, though, about an artless, disorderly, inconsequential piece of screwball fare like this is that it makes you laugh. I’d say Along Came Polly satisfies that prerequisite in spades.     

Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, a straight-laced insurance risk assessor who exercises the same unyielding forethought to the choices in his personal life as he does to his company’s potential clients. Reuben’s aversion to chance has blunted his ability to be spontaneous: at a bar, he gets fidgety over the prospect that E. coli may be lurking in a bowl of peanuts. (His anally excessive need to manage all aspects of his life has also given birth to a nasty case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.) The poor sap’s illusory sense of order is rudely upended when he learns that his new wife has fallen for a French scuba instructor (an unrecognizable—and frequently bare-bummed—Hank Azaria) that they meet on the first day of their tropical honeymoon. When Reuben returns to NYC, he’s left alone to wallow in the air-conditioned nightmare he bought as a surprise for the little woman, and is greeted with feigned commiseration by his sniggering co-workers. He seeks comfort in his slovenly washed-up actor pal, Sandy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who encourages him to jump back into the dating scene. Sandy, a total poseur and unrepentant slob, gives Reuben a tip on making out with a girl: smack her on the bottom and moan, “Who’s your daddy?” 

At an art opening, Reuben’s luck takes a turn when he spots a former classmate, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), who’s working as a waitress. But just when the two seem to be hitting it off, Sandy, who has accidentally “sharted” in his pantaloons, yanks Reuben out of the doings. (For the uninformed, to “shart” means to fart and shit at the same time.) When Reuben finally hooks back up with Polly, the movie gets a lot of mileage out of its main comic conceit: Reuben is a control freak; Polly, a free spirit. But the unevenness in their personalities never lands them in the loony predicaments we’d like to see. Polly is open to trying new things (such as African eateries), but she’s hardly the unbridled force that, say, Melanie Griffith was in Something Wild. Actually, the wild one that comes along isn’t Polly, but rather Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), a daredevil magnate whom Reuben is assessing for a life insurance policy. You’ll probably catch Leland’s thematic purpose a mile off: Reuben’s decision regarding this balls-out Aussie will foreshadow his decision about whether or not to pursue a long-term commitment with Polly. 

Despite the unremarkable script (which includes a toilet gag straight out of Dumb and Dumber), writer and director John Hamburg (who penned the riotous Meet the Parents) keeps the laughs coming. That wouldn’t be possible, though, without the film’s able cast, which includes Alec Baldwin as Reuben’s slick, though paunchy superior. Since the eldest Baldwin has become something of a joke in the leading man department, he’s been free of late to take on more colorful supporting roles, and—who’d of thunk it?—he’s becoming a damn fine character actor. Brown has lots of fun and games with his part, too; I don’t think he’s ever been more lovable. But it’s Hoffman that nearly walks off with this picture. His entrance in Along Came Polly is marked by the most hackneyed of sight gags: he slips and lands flat on his bum. And though I had long thought pratfalls went the way of pie fights, Hoffman somehow makes the bit work again.

January 22, 2004

© Copyright 2007 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.