Failure to launch fails to connect
Failure to Launch, a new romantic comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey, is a light, cotton-candy romantic comedy with little to no caloric intake. In other words, go to be entertained, but don’t expect the plot to make a lot of sense.
This is one of those movies where half way through you begin to rewrite the script in your head, attempting to help the movie along. “If only the plot didn’t take that predictable turn, if only the friend who was a computer programmer wasn’t a geek, if only….,” you get the picture. If only the director, Tom Dey, did!
The two main stars are their usual adorable selves – Sarah is her usual perky and yet street-wise, hair-tossing self; Matthew is all teeth, tan and southern hospitality. Their chemistry together is lukewarm, but it’s the one thing that fits this plot, since both characters have commitment issues and major emotional baggage.
Supporting actors Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw play his parents, so desperate to have their son move on with the next phase of his life (he’s 35 and still living upstairs in his childhood bedroom) that they hire Parker as a ‘transitional’ therapist recommended by friends who just successfully ousted their reluctant son.
Some saving grace is provided by the respective friend characters – the eccentric room mate played by Zooey Deschanel and the two Peter Pan boy friends, one of whom, Justin Bartha gives some needed warmth and humanism to the plot. But otherwise we know the main tenants by rote and I was particularly annoyed by a strange subplot about attacking land and sea animals that must have Flipper rolling in his grave.
One and a half out of four stars. If you need a quick romantic comedy fix or a safe movie for the girlfriends (or tween set), go see it. Otherwise wait for the NetFlix rental queue. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, partial nudity and language. There is lots of tangling in sheets and glimpses of parts of naked bodies, but only one bare backside gets a lot of film exposure – and it belongs to Terry Bradshaw (will any of us look at NFL Today the same again?!!)
