The Dilemma (2011) Universal/Comedy-Drama RT: 111 minutes Rated PG-13 (mature thematic elements involving sexual content, language, some violence) Director: Ron Howard Screenplay: Allan Loeb Music: Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe Cinematography: Salvatore Totino Release date: January 14, 2011 (US) Cast: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah, Amy Morton, Chelcie Ross, Eduardo N. Martinez, Rance Howard, Clint Howard. Box Office: $48.4M (US)/$69.7M (World)
Rating: *
For a supposed comedy, The Dilemma is shockingly free of humor. I didn’t laugh once. I didn’t chuckle, chortle, snicker, titter or even smile. I sat there in stone silence as I witnessed a rare misfire from director Ron Howard, the same guy that made Night Shift, Gung Ho and Parenthood. One question kept running through my mind: “Where’s the funny?” I’m still wondering.
The Dilemma stars Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers) and Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) as Ronny and Nick, longtime best buds and co-owners of a small auto design company. On the eve of a big business deal with Dodge, Ronny sees something he shouldn’t. While looking for a place to propose to his girlfriend Beth (Connelly, A Beautiful Mind), he spots Nick’s wife Geneva (Ryder, Heathers) kissing another man. He doesn’t know what to do. Should he tell his friend about his cheating wife or stay out of it? His reticence leads to lies, lies and more lies. It also leads to Geneva threatening to reveal a secret about Ronny to Nick if he lets the cat out of the bag.
To his credit, Howard doesn’t resort to mean-spiritedness or crass humor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make The Dilemma any better. It’s obvious he’s trying to make an adult-oriented seriocomedy about the nature of relationships. It fails because he can’t decide between slapstick and seriousness. It results in a tonally inconsistent movie that works as neither comedy nor drama.
In the way of comedy, we get tired situations like Ronny hiding in a tree outside Geneva’s lover’s apartment in order to obtain photographic proof of her infidelity. The lover in question is a tattooed lunkhead named Zip (Tatum, Magic Mike). Any one of his tats has a higher IQ than him. Nick manages to get trapped on his balcony which leads to a physical altercation during which we discover how sensitive Zip is. His feelings are hurt when he thinks Nick is making fun of him. There’s an even unfunnier bit involving an allergic reaction to poisonous plants. The side effects include an ugly rash and painful urination. Don’t even get me started on the uncomfortably inappropriate toast about honesty Nick makes at an anniversary party. As for the drama, the lame attempts at humor undermine it at every turn.
Theoretically, a situation like the one depicted in The Dilemma could work. The right director, say the late Blake Edwards, could effectively mine it for laughs. Howard is not the right director. In his hands, the pacing and comic timing are both off by a wide margin. The movie is further hampered by a dialogue-heavy but underdeveloped screenplay from Allan Loeb (The Switch). It’s an exercise in contradiction. The characters do a lot of talking, but don’t actually say anything. Why? Because they’re all idiots. It doesn’t stop there. The Dilemma takes the notion of Idiot Plot (a plot where the conflict could be solved immediately by revealing a key piece of info) into the beyond by having the characters complicate things further by saying all the wrong things.
In general, the performances in The Dilemma are okay. The problem lies with the character likability factor. Some of the characters, especially Geneva, aren’t likable. As much as I like Ryder as an actress, she plays somebody that I came to hate. Geneva, in addition to being a liar and a cheat, is selfish and narcissistic. It reached the point where I cringed every time her character appeared. Vaughn, in his usual overgrown frat boy persona, isn’t much better. His character is a jerk. Although I sympathized with his predicament, he handles it poorly at every turn by constantly lying. They’re stupid lies too. When Beth asks about his rash, he spins a wild tale about retrieving a lost ball for some overweight kids. What’s worse is she doesn’t call him on it right there and then. The Idiot Plot thickens.
Speaking of which, Connelly’s character is the most unwritten of the bunch. She’s barely a presence until the third act. James plays the only likable character in The Dilemma even if Nick is a dumb ass albeit a good-natured one. As for the pairing of Vaughn and James, there’s no chemistry there. They don’t play off of each other naturally; it feels forced.
The Dilemma is a bad movie, plain and simple. Given its pedigree, it should have been much better. It absolutely wastes a talented cast by dropping them into situations that were tired and stale 40 years ago. At 111 minutes, it’s longer than it needs to be. In the end, it’s a big bunch of nothing except two hours of your life you’ll never get back.
