‘Date Night’ review

“Date Night” unites two of television’s funniest actors: Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. The stars of “30 Rock” and “The Office”, respectively, star together for the first time in this film and I must say it exceeded my expectations. The trailers looked like an unfunny version of Scorsese’s “After Hours” and although there are definitely moments where its clearly out of ideas, “Date Night” is a mostly hilarious testament to how funny its two leads are. There are moments in this film that approach hysterical, and others that are clearly out of ideas. Regardless, the quantity of the funny moments definitely outweigh that of the unfunny ones, resulting in a very entertaining (if forgettable) movie.

Carrell and Fey play a married couple, Phil, whose spark in their marriage has been replaced with endless errands and work. One night they decide to venture to an upscale New York restaurant. However once there, two goons mistake Phil and Claire for another couple that have stolen from them, and chase them throughout the city. As the night progresses, the people chasing the couple become more dangerous, the happenings become increasingly bizarre, and they receive help from a constantly shirtless detective played by Mark Wahlberg (playing something of a parody of his underwear-model image).

The director, Shawn Levy essentially makes low-brow yet successful comedies for a living (Case in point: “Night at the Museum”, “Cheaper by the Dozen”, “The Pink Panther”), the majority of which I don’t particularly care for. But here in “Date Night” he succeeds, by not relying on visual effects for humor but by relying on the humor in his cast, by relying on his characters to be funny. There is however, one portion of the film that feels completely out-of-place and superfluous: A sequence in a strip club, where the clearly out-of-place Carell and Fey must perform (for comedic effort). Although it somewhat makes sense in context of the plot, it just feels unnecessarily crude, if admittedly not mean-spirited. One thing that surprised me about this film: Some moments are actually quite sweet. The best moments of the film capture why the main characters love each other, and although it puts the two through ludicrous situations the relationship between them is quite realistically and sometimes poignantly portrayed.

“Date Night” is a perfectly funny, perfectly accessible, and perfectly enjoyable comedy. It stands head and shoulders above the majority of other PG-13 Hollywood comedies and I squarely attest that to its two lead actors. 3 stars out of 4.

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