‘Dupree’ lacks script, sidekick and laughs
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, July 13, 2006
Owen Wilson is running on fumes in “You, Me and Dupree,” an arrested-development comedy without enough laughs. This is one of those movies nobody thought through all the way.
“Dupree” looks an awful lot like a rush job to cash in on Wilson’s recent success partnering with the likes of Vince Vaughn (“Wedding Crashers”) and Ben Stiller (“Starsky &Hutch” and the “Meet the Parents” movies). But here he doesn’t have the partner, and he doesn’t have the script.
Wilson plays Dupree (it comes as a disappointment when we learn he actually has a first name), a 36-year-old jackass who can’t hold a steady job or girlfriend. He’s always the life of the party, though.
When his childhood buddy Carl (Matt Dillon) gets married, it’s the end of Dupree’s man-child club. As fate would have it, he needs a place to crash, and so moves in with Carl and new bride Molly (Kate Hudson).
We need not delve into the trouble that follows, except to note that much of it is the kind of sexual or scatological humor that presses the boundaries of a PG-13 rating. Which would be a little easier to take if it were funny. But it’s not.
The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who made the equally leaden “Welcome to Collinwood.” Naturally along with the crass jokes there’s a hefty helping of sentimentality, as Dupree plays with the neighborhood kids and he and Carl share moments of tender male bonding.
Wilson has a scattering of good lines, which sound a lot like his own writing (Michael Le Sieur is the credited screenwriter). Also in the cast is Michael Douglas, as Carl’s fatcat father-in-law. “40-Year-Old Virgin” comic Seth Rogen adds a few good moments as a henpecked buddy.
Meanwhile, Matt Dillon is stuck in a role that appears meant for Ben Stiller, and although Dillon has an underused comic instinct, he can’t do much with the role of a hapless straight man.
Kate Hudson is also wasted. Even more bizarre is the non-casting of a supporting role – a librarian who goes out on a single torrid date with Dupree and becomes the object of his dreamy affection thereafter. We never see her, even though she figures in a series of scenes. Is her non-presence a joke, or an insult?
This movie makes Owen Wilson look like a bit of a Dupree himself. The scripts he writes with Wes Anderson (including “Rushmore”) are among the most sophisticated of modern comedies, and as an actor he can be very witty. So what’s he doing clinging to kid stuff?
Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon and Owen Wilson star in “You, Me and Dupree.”
