Review: You, Me and Dupree

This movie is probably worth a rental, but nothing more. It features a few funny laughs, but probably only about half of the comedic scenes work. The problem with the movie is that it works mostly as a situational comedy, but it doesn't set up the situations properly to generate the right laughs. The biggest reason for this is that the movie doesn't know who the main character is. Is the movie about Matt Dillon's character? It seems like it in the beginning. But then towards the middle it seems that Owen Wilson's character becomes the protagonist. But then the movie starts describing Kate Hudson's character a bit more. It's all done rather clumsily, and the net effect is that none of the characters is well fleshed-out, none of them seem real, and it is very unclear whom the audience is supposed to identify with most. Perhaps the intended answer is "all three", but the movie fails to pull that off. The net result is that the developments between the characters have neither the comedic nor emotional impact that is required to really hook in the audience. A few scattered scenes work, but overall it falls flat.

The other disappointment is that Owen Wilson does not get to do as many zany things as he normally does. He's actually rather reserved, considering that the premise would seem to allow him to go way over the top. Again, I think this is because the movie wanted to approach the plot as if it were a situational comedy, rather than a farce. Unfortunately the filmmakers couldn't really pull that off, so it just feels like Owen Wilson is being artificially restrained. Perhaps he just needs Ben Stiller or Vince Vaughn in order to fully let loose.