Ben Stiller is not a leading man. I cannot emphasize that enough. Omnipotent forces beyond our control have been trying to sell us on the idea for a decade or so, and it’s just not sticking. For him to be even remotely effective, he must be either in a supporting role (“Dodgeball,” or as Tony Wonder in “Arrested Development”) or paired with Owen Wilson (“Starsky and Hutch”). Or both (“The Royal Tenenbaums”).
Give him a movie to carry on his back — typically as the “Straight Man” whose life gets turned upside down by a wacky series of events and a cavalcade of quirky co-stars — and he does absolutely nothing with it. Do you remember Stiller in “Meet the Parents” or do you remember DeNiro? In “Night at the Museum,” do you remember Stiller or do you remember Ricky Gervais, the three old fogies and the impressive special effects?
Do you remember Stiller from “There’s Something About Mary” or do you remember Matt Dillon’s giddy, false-toothed private detective and Cameron Diaz’s semen-crusted hair? (OK, maybe you remember his beans and frank, but that doesn’t count.)
It’s not a good sign when you’re the least-interesting thing in your own movie, your own star vehicle. To be fair, the “Straight Man” is often a thankless, difficult role, but in that role Stiller certainly doesn’t do anything to help his own cause. As the star, he’s vapid and unmemorable. He can’t create a lifelike protagonist. He can only go through the motions. He’s like Matthew McConaughey, only not as adorable.
For the second time, he has teamed up with the Farrelly brothers, filmmakers who aren’t nearly as clever as some seem to think they are, but whose new film, “The Heartbreak Kid,” isn’t nearly as bad as every trailer and commercial makes it look.
A remake of a Neil Simon-penned 1972 movie of the same name, “The Heartbreak Kid” follows Stiller’s commitment-phobic Eddie Cantrow as he rushes into a sudden marriage, only to find out his new wife is certifiably insane, and then find his true love while on his honeymoon. Naturally, the Farrelly brothers play the concept for gross-out laughs, sex gags, comically violent pratfalls and little white lies that snowball into absurd misunderstandings.
As funny as they can be at times, I’ve always felt the Farrellys were massively overrated. Even their best film, “Kingpin,” ranged from hysterical to groan-inducing. Some of their others — “Me, Myself and Irene,” “Shallow Hal” and, most recently, “Fever Pitch” — are only groan-inducing. With “The Heartbreak Kid,” they’re at their most consistent, but not their most creative. They manage to find a balance between character and comedy, and certain individual scenes are shocking and hilarious. But mostly, the film manages to be mildly amusing and nothing more. Easy to watch, easy to chuckle at, easy to forget.
The performances are responsible for much of the film’s success. Malin Akerman, as Eddie’s seemingly perfect but secretly psycho wife Lila, is a breath of fresh air. Fittingly for the Farrellys, she’s a Cameron Diaz-type (only without such a humongous mouth) who can be equally convincing as both shy-and-loving or eccentric-and-hysterical.
As Miranda, the real love interest, Michelle Monaghan (excellent in “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”) is effortlessly charming. Of the many supporting “guys,” my favorite was Danny McBride as Miranda’s protective redneck cousin. The biggest negative is the fact that the supremely untalented Carlos Mencia plays a prominent role. (What, Horatio Sanz wasn’t available?)
“The Heartbreak Kid” shows that the Farrellys can still straddle the line between edgy and sappy, but at the same time demonstrates that they haven’t really progressed as filmmakers. Let’s just hope that, when production finally starts on their upcoming this-already-sounds-like-a-bad-idea big-screen version of “The Three Stooges,” they don’t cast Ben Stiller as Moe and give him a wacky romantic crisis.