Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Love is a Battlefield:
Failure to Launch and Same Sex America
3-8-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
A diverting romantic comedy and an insightful documentary about the power of love
Failure to Launch combines so many different comedic elements that it’s almost a series of short subjects welded together.  
From scene to scene the tone varies from tried and true romantic comedy to outsized physical slapstick, from a buddy picture to a
chick flick, from sharply observed to sloppy and frittered away.  Not surprisingly, the whole is a mess of styles and rhythms that
should not work.  The surprise is that it does – and very well.  Failure to Launch may be a mess but it’s a delightful one, helped
enormously by a great comic premise and its potent star wattage.

We are, after all, talking about the onscreen teaming of the Sexiest Man Alive and the Sex and the City Woman a/k/a Matthew
McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker.    Who wouldn’t want to spend 90 minutes with these two fabulous physical specimens?  For
gay men, the promise of shirtless hunk McConaughey strutting around in a towel – prominently featured in the film’s trailer – is
reason enough to sit through the movie while the alternately sassy and sexy Parker has enough personality for two, not to mention
her lauded fashion sense and iconic Best Gay Man Gal Pal status.  An expert supporting cast, headed by Kathy Bates, Terry Bradshaw
and Zooey Deschanel helps seal the deal.

The premise is that though Tripp (McConaughey) is a successful 35 year-old boat salesman who drives a Porche and has a bachelor
pad/sail boat at the ready he has decided to live at home with his parents, Sue and Al (Bates and Bradshaw).  Instead of cramping
his Casanova tendencies, it’s given him a safety valve.  Apparently, once he’s ready to dump the comely beauty in question who has
gotten too serious, he brings her home to meet mom and dad.  Naturally, this is a deal breaker and Trip is free to find the next
willing victim.

We meet his two best friends, environmentalist Demo (Bradley Cooper) and computer “geek” Ace (Justin Bartha) who both also live
at home with their parents.  All three of these sufferers of the “Peter Pan syndrome” feel no guilt about this, to the contrary, and
none feels the need to move anytime soon.  But Sue, who makes Tripp a Costco sized breakfast every morning, does his laundry
and cleans his room and Al, who wants some alone time with “mother,” are ready for their “boy” to leave the nest once and for all.  
During a neighborhood barbeque while comparing notes with friends suffering the same fate they hear about a professional named
Paula who describes this Adult Males Living At Home With Parents syndrome as “Failure to Launch.”  She promises to get Tripp out of
the house toot sweet and Al and Sue give her the go ahead.

In a service economy in which one can pay someone to do just about anything for you Paula’s profession makes perfect sense (don’t
be surprised to read about a real life Paula soon after the movie’s release).  She has what she considers a foolproof method and
soon Tripp is, indeed, smitten.  But then, following romantic comedy conventions, Paula finds herself bitten by the love bug herself
and naturally complications ensue on the bumpy road to love.  McConaughey and especially Parker, have been down this road many
times before and turn in their usual assured, expert performances and look great doing it.  

There are subplots galore that don’t particularly belong together (hence the uneven tone of the picture) with the most satisfying and
hilarious the one involving Paula’s roommate, the droll and acidic Kit (Deschanel).  Deschanel, with her crack timing and ability to
deliver laughs by doing little more than crooking an eyebrow is quickly becoming this generation’s acrid Thelma Ritter-Eve Arden and
deadpan Virginia O’Brien.  Kit, it seems, is tortured nightly by a bird singing outside her window.  Through ever increasing plot
contrivances, Kit is forced to date Ace, the supposed computer “geek” – though of course it turns out that he’s a mega millionaire
and only in the movies would someone this cute be considered a geek.  To ingratiate himself with the hesitant to say the least Kit,
Ace offers to help with the bird problem and a scene follows that had me laughing so hard I was crying.  It has absolutely nothing to
do with the rest of the movie but elevates a bouncy comedy into Mel Brooks territory – inspired lunacy – a great and unexpected feat.

Aside from the film’s uneven tone – due to a committee of writers or perhaps the inexperience of director James Dey helming his
third feature (after two dismal comedies) – the movie also fails to find much for Kathy Bates to do – a criminal shame for this gifted
comedienne.  It also assigns Terry Bradshaw the unfortunate overweight white male nude photographed behind strategically placed
objects scene.  Popularized by Mike Myers and Will Ferrell and utilized by them in seemingly all of their movies, I for one am ready
to bid this trend adieu.  

But these quibbles don’t get in the way of this being a great date movie for audiences gay and straight.  Unlike its groaner of a title,
Failure to Launch is a sexy, funny romp and perhaps most strikingly, one made for adults and not teens.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I first saw Henry Corra’s documentary
Same Sex America last year and was blown away by the quiet dignity and determination of
its participants.  This insightful movie, which focuses on the fight (both pro and con) for the legalization of gay marriage in
Massachusetts, the first state to do so, is getting its U.S. theatrical premiere this week at Facets.  The film, not to be missed, opens
Friday and plays for one week.

Corra focuses on assorted gay and lesbian couples eager to finally legalize their union but he also shows us equally impassioned
individuals in the opposition.  Not all those against it that Corra shows us, wrongheaded as they are (in my opinion, naturally), are
the stereotypical Jesse Helms spewing hatred types either.  In one example of the deep rift between the two sides, he presents the
story of a lesbian activist confronting her parents who have worked the other side, trying to come to terms after a vote that goes
against the liberals.  That they can’t seem to come to terms is bittersweet for daughter and parents and resonated well beyond the
screening for me.  Corra also finds individuals – a gay marriage lobbyist, a county registrar, the adorable and curious Vietnamese
daughter of a gay couple, a devout Catholic mother – who make terrific, impassioned camera subjects that beautifully verbalize their
views.  This is a historic, highly entertaining and thought provoking film from the battlefront of the issue that doesn’t feel like cough
syrup.  Highly recommended.  
www.facets.org