Date Night: Just Desserts
Brandon Nowalk
From the get-go, Date Night is not exactly what you expect, launching beneath surprising strains of punk standard “Blitzkrieg Bop,” an only half-ironic musical choice considering the mundane lives of the Fosters are violently upended over the next ninety minutes. A mistaken identity comedy in which a married couple steals a restaurant reservation, Date Night knows exactly what it is: a solid if not spectacular buddy comedy where the buddies happen to be married.
Showcased weekly in The Office and 30 Rock respectively, Steve Carell and Tina Fey are preternaturally dedicated performers capable of making any absurd material believable. So while Date Night has a few slack moments and turn-on-a-dime mood swings, you always buy the Fosters as normal people (albeit extra funny) in ridiculous circumstances. They’re joined here by an entire red carpet (dashing Mark Wahlberg, trashy James Franco, ball-buster Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, Ray Liotta, Taraji P. Henson, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Leighton Meester, Common—you get the picture), but the focus is kept wisely on the Fosters.
Director Shawn Levy is something of a nonentity, a handyman who shows up to point the cameras at whatever the script says that day. I haven’t seen any of his previous features (Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen), but unfortunately there is nothing distinctive about the style of Date Night: a two-shot of the stars, a crane look at puddly New York streets, and cuts on pretty much every line. The action sequences are surprisingly witty, but some directorial personality would have been nice. Instead Levy surrenders his influence to his leads and capable screenwriter Josh Klausner.
Klausner’s script pits your everyday boring married couple against both bizarre external conflicts with the mob on their tail and heartfelt internal ones as they struggle to ascertain the health of their marriage. You get the feeling the stars felt more comfortable in the lighter scenes than in the sometimes clunky emotional moments, but they power through the story and imbue it with gravitas. Klausner’s other coup is to feature multiple instances of his versatile leads adopting various fake personae, which allows the Fosters to play annoying hipsters demanding to get back into a trendy restaurant in one of the film’s funniest scenes.
In the broad strokes, Date Night plays out about how you’d expect, but there’s enough spin on the nitty-gritty to keep the film from falling into convention. For instance, there’s a humorous final act play on the seduction trope that comes close to moral insight, and the film always has time to mock the phony. This thanks to the film’s message to accept who you are, just like the pleasant, diverting, little Date Night.