February 8, 2011: The Dilemma
Oscar season this year coincided with cereal-box movie passes, and I’m not one to turn down cheap or essentially “free” first-run movies (I eat the cereal), even if I am in the middle of a desperate campaign to see the 40-odd Oscar nominated films. Being generally a fan of Vince Vaughn, I wanted to see The Dilemma before it disappeared from theatres.
I would like to characterize this as a concept comedy, but really, the concept is so weak and mundane that I’m surprised anyone decided to greenlight it. Vaughn plays a man who is in the auto parts manufacturing business with his college buddy and best friend (played by Kevin James), and he finds out that James’ wife is cheating on him, and has to figure out whether or not to tell his friend. That’s the movie.
This might make for a wonderful little 40-minute film about moral obligations and how modern society has forced different expectations upon people. However, someone was trying to make it into a feature-length watered-down PG-13 comedy vehicle for two big box office stars (not to mention a complete waste of time for talented co-stars Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly). I’d like to just say that it doesn’t quite work, but that would be a bit too generous. Plot elements such as Vaughn’s sneaky pursuit of his friend’s wife’s lover are just jarringly out of place and detract from the moral question at hand. Plot devices such as Vaughn’s struggle with gambling are seemingly tacked on just to smooth out a couple of plot contrivances, without addressing the huge implications not related to the story at hand. And subplots such as the major automotive breakthrough the guys are about to make – throaty muscle-car sounds for electric cars to make them seem cool – are so unbelievable that it’s hard to understand how anyone thought they would be either funny or not a total distraction from the main story of the film.
I didn’t hate The Dilemma when I saw it, but in the time I’ve had to reflect on it, I’d have to say it has diminished quite a bit and I now don’t see a lot of redeeming value in the film.
A waste of tremendous comedic talent.
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