Failure to Launch

“God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

This could have been the prologue or backstory to Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) and his friends, none of whom have left their parents’ nests. But instead, these were the words of Tyler Durden in “Fight Club.” I can wish all I want that a film such as “Failure to Launch” would have even one tenth of the insights of “Fight Club”—not particularly deep itself—but I’m stuck with a mildly funny and formulaic romantic comedy in which nobody’s apartment gets blown up.

Tripp always dates but never holds down a relationship — always jettisoned when the girl realizes, inevitably, that he still lives with his parents. His parents, Sue (Kathy Bates) and Al (Terry Bradshaw), want more than anything to see him get out on his own. Their motives aren’t entirely altruistic, of course. They’ve spent enough time being parents and would like to finally have some time to themselves again. Their neighbor’s son finally moved out, which motivates them to seek a solution to their “problem.”

So, Al and Sue hire Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker), an intermediator, to get Tripp out of the house for good. Paula is a professional go-between who helps wean the “adult child,” as she calls them, off the parents. It’s a little fuzzy exactly what happens after each job is finished and she finally has to break it off. I mean, how do you guarantee against relapses? Which makes one wonder, “Is there a licensing board for this kind of practice?” It’s ok. People invent professions all the time. Nevermind how I got into film criticism…

Paula’s roommate, Kit (Zooey Deschanel), is an experiment in angst and paranoia. What plagues her particularly is a mockingbird who makes noises at all hours. She vows her revenge. I like this character because, while she is the token eccentric roommate of the clean-cut protagonist, she does yet seem out of place for a film even this formulaic. It’s not that the character is written with any degree of unexpected complexity. It’s just that her wit seems off-axis from the pacing of the rest of the show. Or maybe the fact that her dialogue is off the beat is an indication of poor comedic timing on the part of the writer… I don’t know, but occasionally it works, like a conversation occurring between one of Tripp’s clients (he’s a boat broker) and the client’s wife. In response to the way the guy asserts himself in an attempt to justify buying the boat with a hefty engine, the wife says, “Guys who drink Kahlua and Cream are not power guys.” If White Russians fall into that category, then I’m in trouble.

At first I wasn’t sure what to make of the subplot involving Animals Behaving Mischeviously… whether it’s the bird that won’t shut the fuck up, or the various animals that seem unable to resist taking a chomp out of Tripp. Suffice it to say these aren’t character-building scenes. They come back later in the form of a rather obvious metaphor. This is unfortunate, because they could have steered the film in a completely unpredictable direction — anything to get away from the stall and tailspin of the same plot revisited in every romantic comedy: The two meet, they don’t like each other at first, then fall in love (surprise), then have a misunderstanding and phony conflict (surprise, surprise) which could have been easily avoided, but they get back together anyway and all’s well that ends well.

Tripp and Paula have a few dates and eventually, as is predictably the function of most romantic comedies, Paula does become genuinely interested in Tripp despite the fact that she has strict rules against it. On one of their later dates, she gets rather involved in a game of paintball. She can’t hide her infatuation from her giftedly brusque roommate nor can she, it seems, hide it from Tripp’s friends. Yes, eventually they do discover the truth about Paula and this is where the film cartwheels back into formula — the gross misunderstanding that leads either to comedy of errors or tragic separation. Also, we should note that Tripp is not all that he seems. After all, there has to be something redeeming about him.

The problem is, the explanation that allegedly redeems him (Spoiler: It concerns an apparent relative, of sorts.) appears to be tacked on because it’s never even remotely hinted at in any of the scenes leading up to the moment of discovery. Additionally, the reason for their split-up seems entirely unlikely as people don’t tend to just start dodging the facts when the truth, just on the edge of their tongue, would so easily clear everything up. What has Paula to lose by telling him the truth, including how she feels despite what she was hired to do? Nothing… but logic be damned if this film needs an artificial catharsis to keep audiences from falling asleep. Doesn’t it ever occur to writers and directors that a good story that’s engaging throughout is much easier to sustain and more likely to appeal to the audience than trying to resuscitate a plot that flatlines three-fourths of the way through?

I would much preferred to see one of several other films this could have been, but wasn’t. One viable alternative would have been to follow in the footsteps of Tyler Durden toward a darker film, not necessarily even a comedy, that explores the culture gap between gen-X’ers and baby-boomers, many of whom have saved well and will retire with (theoretically) full Medicare and Social Security benefits that will probably never be seen by their live-at-home adult children.

This movie doesn’t capitalize on the spontaneous energy that Sarah Jessica Parker is capable of delivering, but it has a moment here or there thanks largely to Deschanel’s deadpan delivery. Still, that’s not enough to steer this ship clear of a seductive vortex of clichés including the young kid who offers sage wisdom about interpersonal relationships… if every kid in every romantic comedy has it all figured out before their twelfth birthday, what happens to that wisdom when they all grow into the adults who don’t seem to know what to do? Or are all the adults imported from another movie where every child has yet to read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People?

Failure to Launch • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Running Time: 97 minutes • MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, partial nudity and language. • Distributed by Paramount Pictures Corp.