Along Came Polly Movie Review:


As we enter into 2004, it is starting to look more and more like the year of the "Stiller". Comedic talent Ben Stiller has 5 films opening in the next 12
months. His first in that quintuplet is the new romantic comedy "Along Came Polly" that co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Reuben Feffer (Stiller) has had to endure a lot of stress recently in his life. His beautiful marriage to beautiful Lisa (Debra Messing) was destroyed
and Reuben seems to be having the hardest time trying to land his largest insurance client (Bryan Brown) yet. He seems to have found some comfort in his new girlfriend Polly (Aniston) and his best friend Sandy (Hoffman) seems to be getting his acting thing going. The only problem is that there is a lot of risk in Reuben's life and he was really burned by Lisa. What is a Rueb to do?

"Along Came Polly" works as its loose style allows for the actors and the jokes to come. This isn't a solid story driven comedy but when the script
allows for Aniston and Stiller to be themselves it can be quite funny.

The film is full of groaning toilet humor which does take away in part to some of the better belly-laughs but this is a great improvement from Stiller
's last comedy, "Duplex".

Stiller is best when he is allowed to over-react to the inhuman situations his character is put in. I also really liked the performance of Hoffman as
Stiller's annoying "has been child-star" friend. He was a great opposite for Stiller's uptight insurance guy.

I found myself having a hard time trying to hate Debra Messing as Stiller's manipulative wife. I would have liked to have seen a harder edge or more insight on her dementia. Her character is a catalyst for the film and there is hardly anything done show what's going on in her.

Hank Azaria as the nudist scuba instructor is another great character for the Azaria repertoire. He is as hilarious here as he was in "America's
Sweethearts" where he was one of the hi-lites of that film.

I liked a lot of Polly but found it didn't have a real edge unless you consider toilet humor a break through. On the upside this is definitely a
return of the Ben Stiller we love.

(3 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

Note:

The other 4 Ben Stiller movies are March's "Starsky & Hutch", "Envy",
"Dodgeball" and "Meet the Fockers". I am so looking forward to Starsky &
Hutch and Meet the Fockers.

Rueben (Stiller) never did anything that would be even slightly unsafe. This is because he knows every possible outcome for what could happen, been New York’s best insurance risk assessor. His whole life is planned out to the letter and his marriage to Liz (Messing) is going to be perfect. That is until on their honeymoon Liz falls for Scuba instructor Claude (Azaria) and decides to stay in St. Barts. Returning home rejected, his best friend Sandy (Hoffman) takes a party to cheer him up but just as he is about to leave he runs into Polly (Aniston) who he used to go to school with. Taking the first risk of his life, he asks her out but will he be able to cope with her free spirited ways?

Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston might not look like the ideal couple but by the end of this movie you will be hoping they get together.

Director John Hamberg, the writer of Zoolander and Meet the Parents brings us a romantic comedy with a slight hint of gross out humour thrown in for good measure. Gathering together a great cast and giving the supporting actors the chance to shine, ‘Along came Polly’ is one of those movies that will keep a smile on your face throughout.

This is a role that Ben Stiller excels in and is well accustomed to playing. He is perfect for the neurotic, paranoid Rueben, proving again that he has a real talent for verbal and physical comedy when he is given the right script. Jennifer Aniston starts to move away from her ‘Friends’ persona with a character that is far removed from Rachel as she could ever be. The role doesn’t really play to her comedic talents as mush as it should however, as in most scenes she is just used as eye-candy (but what eye-candy she is). There is a certain amount of chemistry between the two but it is hard to imagine their characters getting together in the real world, even if they do say that opposites attract.

The supporting cast are excellent however. Phillip Seymour Hoffman proves again what a fine actor he is by turning his considerable talent to comedy. Playing former teen star Sandy Lyle, he grabs you attention every time is graces the screen by producing some genuine laugh out loud moments. Just wait until you hear the reason why he has to leave the party, hysterical. Another scene stealing performance comes from Alec Baldwin was Rueben’s obnoxious boss, Stan Indursky who likes to talk to his employees where ever and when ever he like, even in the men’s toilets. Hank Azaria proves again what a great comedian he is as scuba lothario Claude. The man has a gift for voices and anyone who watches ‘The Simpson’s’ will already know this. Debra Messing is also good as Rueben not so faithful wife but she doesn’t get enough screen time to showcase her talent as anyone who has seen “Will & Grace” will testify to. It is also good to see Bryan Brown back in a main stream, Hollywood movie.

While not breaking any new ground in the originality stakes, ‘Along came Polly’ is a fun rom-com that provides a lot of laughs in its relatively short 90 minutes.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

From the writer of Meet the Parents, here's another comedy of embarrassment for Ben Stiller (who surely must be getting tired of them). It's good for a few mindless laughs but lacks any truly memorable cinematic scenes or characters--where's Robert DeNiro when you need him?

Reuben (Stiller) is a nice guy insurance expert whose wife (Messing) dumps him on their honeymoon for a scuba instructor (Azaria in zany naked-foreigner mode). Back home, his best friend (Hoffman) encourages him to get back into the dating scene as quickly as possible, so Reuben turns to old school friend Polly (Aniston), who's just back in town. But she's the opposite of Reuben; he has to plan for every conceivable eventuality and assess every risk, while she can't even think beyond this afternoon.

There's never a question about where this film is going, so Hamburg doesn't bother trying to throw us off the scent. This is one of the laziest rom-com scripts in memory--no real conflict at all! The only joy in the film is the way the actors approach each ludicrously silly set piece, and as always Stiller wins us over in the opening scene so we can root for him to sort out his life before the final credits. Aniston and Messing are funny and watchable as variations on their familiar TV personas. Hoffman gets all the big laughs as the over-the-top bozo, although his climactic scene is too much, and as a result not funny at all. We've even got silly against-type roles for Baldwin (Reuben's pushy-comic boss), Brown (his risky-comic client), Lee and Dishy (his loving-comic parents). But a continual stream of funny scenes does not a movie make, and Hamburg neglects the story and characters so badly that it all unravels long before the end, during which he starts cutting away to side elements that were never funny in the first place (such as Polly's blind pet ferret). It passes the time enjoyably, but that's about it.

Rich Cline

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