Due Date
I know I’m not alone in thinking that the pairing of Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis with “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips should be a match made in dark comedy heaven. And there are many times in which all three just feel inspired (especially Downey Jr.). Sadly, there are not enough of those times during “Due Date’s” 95-minute running time.
The premise is promising. Downey Jr. plays Peter, an architect from L.A. who is trying to get back to his pregnant wife (Michelle Monaghan) after a business trip in Atlanta. And then he meets Galifianakis’s Ethan, a wannabe actor in town for his father’s funeral with his dog Sonny. When the two get kicked off of the plane and interrogated by Homeland Security (note to all: don’t say the words “terrorists” or “bomb” on an airplane) and placed on the No-Fly list, they end up having to share a car cross-country…assuming they can make it out of the state without killing one another.
Phillips has always been hit-or-miss with me. I loved “The Hangover,” liked “Old School,” but “Starsky & Hutch”? No thanks. Unfortunately, this film is somewhere between “Old School” and “Hutch”-a lot of really great laughs but a lot of groan-worthy moments in the middle. The actors are more than game; Downey Jr. and Galifianakis both came to play, but only Galifianakis has a role with which we can sympathize. Downey Jr.’s Peter comes off as a self-centered douche throughout most of the film. Only at moments of vulnerability with Galifianakis and anxiety with Monaghan and Jamie Foxx as his BFF is Peter given some chance to be a real person in a believable fashion. Still, even if the script doesn’t do right by them, Downey Jr. and Galifianakis are able to find some heart, and hearty humor, in this twisted take on “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”
