Top Box Office Movies - Along Came Polly

Along Came Polly (2004) Universal Pictures
1 hr. 30 mins.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Brown
Directed by: John Hamburg

Along Came Polly

Rating:

E-MAIL FRANK OCHIENG

Photo: Universal Pictures

Writer-director John Hamburg (Safe Men) seems to be grinding out the outrageousness of his new romantic comedy Along Came Polly instead of ensuring the easy flow of his material that shouldn’t have been strained in its giddy presentation. Hamburg’s nutty theme about opposites attracting thanks in large to an unexpected marital break up should have been an opportunistic premise that could have been kicked out of the water based on its situational set-up. Veteran goofball Ben Stiller as the Zen master of ribald romancers (There’s Something About Mary, Flirting With Disaster, Meet The Parents, etc.) and the ubiquitous but reliable Jennifer Aniston on board should have tightened up the appeal of this aimless wacky narrative.

However, Along Came Polly never quite registers as a genuine commentary in the mismatched world of unpredictable relationships. Hamburg tries his best to toss in arbitrary robust slapstick moments here and there and prays that his high-powered cast can ignite the frivolity with their mere presence. But the screenplay relies too much on the well-known cinematic reputation of its leading stars (Stiller as the flustered Nervous Nellie; Aniston as the free-wheeling sass). Thus, this ignores the inclination to provide something insightful and fresh about the madcap concept of two lost souls gradually finding each other despite the differences of their zany personal make ups. Conversely, Along Came Polly is a scattershot and tiring romantic ruse that depends on its notable players to sell the relentlessly lame, run-of-the-mill package of witless high jinks. This Polly doesn’t need a cracker but a crackerjack sense of carousing creativity to elevate it beyond its inherent mediocrity.

Stiller plays cautious-minded Reuben Feffer, a New York-based insurance assessor dealing in risky claims. The running gag about Reuben’s individuality is that his idiosyncrasies deem him as an uptight control freak whose finicky act has him tagged as an obsessive stiff. When Reuben’s marriage comes loose at the seams during the honeymoon when wife Lisa (television’s Emmy-winning Will and Grace star Debra Messing) decides to take up with an unstable and thick-accented French scuba instructor (Hank Azaria, Shattered Glass) his world falls apart. As a result, Reuben understandably finds himself disillusioned and his concerned backers convince him to put Lisa and the disastrous developments behind him and look forward to new romantic challenges.

Soon, Reuben starts to invest his time and energy by hooking up with former school classmate Polly Prince (Aniston), a gal that knows how to be spontaneous and lets her hair down eagerly without any reservations whatsoever. One would think that there would be a conflict of interest with Reuben being so anally guarded and Polly being liberated in her zesty lifestyle. Actually, Polly is somewhat of a therapeutic tool for Reuben because she allows him to gradually crawl out of his insecure skin so he can welcome the challenge of letting the chips fall where they may. Because of Polly’s flightiness and determined penchant for having a good time, Reuben engages in spirited activities ranging from forcing down disagreeable spicy foods to partaking in Cuban-style dancing (no doubt with the inevitable pratfalls and other clumsy stunts to follow).

Things start to go smoothly for the unlikely tandem of the newly invented Reuben and his kooky love Polly. But soon the stagnation in their union will settle in to the point where Reuben would like to cement something serious with Polly. Given her carefree attitude and unstructured approach to certain things, it’s clear that Polly needs to start grasping at being what Reuben once was—an individual that needs to get a grip on her existence and begin to utilize a reality check. Plus, it doesn’t help matters when the returning Lisa dumps her shady Frenchman for a chance to reunite with Reuben and claim her love back for him. So the choices remain as follows: should Reuben stick with Polly and hope that she comes around to acknowledging some kind of commitment in their unconventional relationship? Or must Reuben force Polly’s hand and reconsider giving the abandoning Lisa one more chance to prove her loving loyalty?

Along Came Polly would have been a halfway decent farce had Hamburg concentrated his efforts on making his loony pairing of Stiller and Aniston more complete in terms of their unorthodox repartee by giving them an interesting psychological plausibility so they could depend on one another beyond the nonsensical nuances. After all, we’re talking about two completely contrasting creatures in need of some intimate rescuing so why not balance their outlandish flaws with something more involving in its emotional heft? It’s as if Hamburg was afraid that his romantic romp would lose its riotous luster if he tried to humanize Stiller’s Reuben and Aniston’s Polly in favor of leaning toward a poignantly piffy flick. Instead, Hamburg loads up on the pointless and formulaic strides of cheap laughs and redundant sight gags that have no passion or originality behind them. The characters aren’t realized thoroughly because Hamburg’s insistence on harping on a worn out subject that’s so obvious as watching opposite eccentrics go through their motions comes up short in its gimmicky cleverness.

As the film’s leading lovebirds, Stiller and Aniston aren’t bad together and their chemistry works more often than not. Still, their characterizations are not remotely different from what they’ve demonstrated in other films previously which pretty much condemns them in Polly because of the regurgitation of their one-dimensional on-screen personas. Since there are no unique surprises to the familiar high-spirited goofy turns that Stiller and Aniston portray, Along Came Polly resorts to being just another conventional faceless romancer with no distinctive spark or spunk. The supporting players (specifically Debra Messing, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin and Bryan Brown) try to stir up the pot of fun-loving foolishness to make this spotty vehicle more stimulating but the movie is too baseless in its jumpy mode to observe their cockeyed contributions.

It’s too bad that Along Came Polly couldn’t realize its potential, particularly since Hamburg has reunited with star Stiller (Hamburg co-wrote the Stiller comedies Meet The Parents and Zoolander). Coming up with redundant hammy happenings (watch out for the obligatory bathroom scene where a diarrhea-prone Stiller goes through some similar pseudo-hysterical There’s Something About Mary potty shtick) and other humiliating-induced bits is not enough to invest our funnybone in a disjointed kissy-poo comedy. Awkwardly, Polly inspires to be cheeky yet ventures into the abyss of a rudimentary romantic clunker.

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Frank Ochieng
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