Search - Failure to Launch [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Supporting Cast Rules

tvtv3 | Sorento, IL United States | 05/23/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker star in this romantic comedy about a thirty-something who still lives at home. McConaughey plays Tripp, a thirty-something boat salesman who still lives with his parents in Baltimore, Maryland (surprisingly, Baltimore looks a lot like some of the towns in Western California, palm trees and all). His parents, Al & Sue (played by Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates) love their son, but want him out of the house and in a place of his own. Desperate, his parents call in a specialist, Paula (played by Sarah Jessica Parker). Paula has made a job out of pretending to fall in love with men so that they will move out on their own. The only problem is that Tripp isn't like the typical man Paula has worked with before: he's tall, tan, dresses well, and earns good money. All of her other previous clients apparently were short, fat, fan-boy types who could barely hold down a part-time job. Paula ends up falling in love with Tripp. Tripp realizes this and tries to get her to break up with him before things get serious. Apparently Tripp likes women but is only interested in them long enough to get what he wants. Tripp ends up falling for Paula and the two end up in a collision course that seems to derail, but is really nothing more than a pit stop.

I was surprised and ended up enjoying FAILURE TO LAUNCH somewhat. Most of this was because of the supporting cast. Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates make a great couple and have some really funny lines. However, all of the other performers are completely upstaged by the performances of Zooey Deschanel as Paula's housemate, Kit, and Justin Bartha as Tripp's best friend, Ace. Ace originally appears as a kind of slacker fan-boy, kind of like the people that Paula normally help "launch" into their own lives. But, Ace really isn't like that. He ends up on a date with Kit as a bribe from Paula to keep quite about secrets he has unraveled. The two end up becoming a pair after Ace uses a Red Ryder BB gun (thanks A CHRISTMAS STORY) to shoot a mockingbird outside her bedroom window that has given her insomnia for several weeks. Deschanel and Bartha steal every scene they are in and their love story is more romantic than that of Tripp and Paula (not to mention how much better their acting is).

FAILURE TO LAUNCH is a movie than many women will enjoy watching. There are a few jokes that are aimed at guys, but the people who put this film together knew that the core audience of this film is women. Still, with that in mind, I find some of the film's messages a bit disconcerting. I realize that perception in the U.S. has changed dramatically recently, but there was a time in the U.S. when it was common, actually it was expected, that children would remain living at their family homes until they were married. The family was the core and both men and women remained at home to support their families until they had families of their own. Even after marriage, many families ended up living in the same homes and neighborhoods. That idea of life seems to be lost in postmodern suburbia super-sized America, but it's actually the norm in most other countries of the world. The movie also seems to say that unless you're a tall, thin, tan, handsome man, you really don't have much chance of ever being involved in a relationship (Ace looks more like an average Joe, but he's still too handsome). As for women, the message seems to be that the only guys worth being in a relationship with are men who don't exist. These messages provide a lot of laughs, but fail to launch the movie into a realm of meaning and purpose."