Home | Reviews | Exclusive Writings | Great Links | Miscellaneous | FAQ | Contact Us

You, Me, and Dupree /

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon, Michael Douglas, Amanda Detmer

Directed by: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo

Produced by: Aaron Kaplan, Sean Perrone

Written by: Michael LeSieur

Distributor: Universal Pictures Distribution

 

Owen Wilson in Universal Pictures' You, Me and Dupree

Matt Dillon in Universal Pictures' You, Me and Dupree

Kate Hudson in Universal Pictures' You, Me and Dupree

     You, Me, and Dupree makes such an astounding attempt to break away from conventional romantic-comedies by still mirroring their content that it ends up being an almost uncomfortable piece of work in the process. The set-up is simple enough: newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) settle down together and expect their love-life to ignite, but things turn out to be far less romantic than they had hoped when Carl’s long-time best-friend Dupree (Owen Wilson) barges into the picture out-of work and in need of a place to stay. They hesitantly agree to allow Dupree to bunk on their couch for a few days, but in true Hollywood fashion, he takes the liberty of extending his visit and all kinds of havoc ensue as a result.

     In terms of story, You, Me, and Dupree is totally typical. It’s in the film’s delivery that directors Anthony and Joe Russo dangerously try to break away from the conventional mold for this type of production. As the story progresses, Dupree’s unwanted-houseguest antics become the focus of Carl’s anger towards his marriage and other’s opinions of it. The tone of the film shifts from one of light-heatedness to one somewhere between dark-comedy and rage. Whatever you’d call it, during this portion of You, Me, and Dupree (which accounts for the majority of the third act), viewers will feel rather awkward. The style is neither romantic nor funny. It would almost appear that the movie seems to be targeting a realistic approach, but there’s nothing real about the story. You, Me, and Dupree is the equivalent of what Two Weeks Notice would have been had it tried to become Scenes From a Marriage mid-way through and then changed its mind and turned back by the time its conclusion rolled around.

     Because of much of the film’s general strangeness, the solid efforts of the cast never really gel with the audience. Wilson tries to be quite the outrageous hoot as Dupree, but his lovable-loser-shtick never really seems very amusing due to its negative effect on Carl and Molly’s relationship. Dillon and Hudson capture the romantic-realism that the directors seemed to be striving for, but because the approach doesn’t work, their efforts are wasted. Michael Douglas also plays Molly’s father and Carl’s boss, but his character’s actions are far too bizarrely written in the first place for one to even attempt to enjoy.

     The climactic moment of You, Me, and Dupree occurs when Carl leaps across a dinner-table and tackles Dupree in order to take out his anger towards the inconvenience that Dupree has caused him during the film, as if he was a wild animal. Sounds weird, you say? Well, heck yes the scene is weird—and so are several other, similar passages in the movie. I like my romantic-comedies to be either so richly romantic and funny that they leave a profound effect on me or so light and fluffy that I am able to forget about them in an instant. You, Me, and Dupree doesn’t even close to fulfilling one of such requirements; it’s a strange bird of an unwelcome movie. The actors—and even their half-likable characters—deserve a better seasoned film to lend their talents to.

-Danny, Bucket Reviews (7.21.2006)

 


Back to Home
The Bucket Review's Rating Scale