'Failure of Launch' is fun, but...

By Bruce Bulloch

"Failure to Launch" is a laid-back movie which, like its protagonist, seems to be without bigger ambitions than to kill a little time and have some fun.

Trip (Matthew McConaughey) is a 35-year-old yacht broker who is still living happily at home with mom and dad. Trip has little to complain about; the food is good, his socks get washed and if a girlfriend begins to make noises about getting serious he simply brings her home to meet the folks. The "ick factor" of a grown man living with his parents is guaranteed to nip that fantasy in the bud.

But while Trip may have found paradise in a protracted adolescence, mom (Kathy Bates) and dad (Terry Bradshaw) have come to long for an empty nest. They hire Paula (Sara Jessica Parker) who is, in an odd little wrinkle of that new service economy we keep hearing about, a professional girl friend. Paula makes her living luring overgrown Star Trek fanatics out of their parents' basements and into the brave new world of their own rent payments.

Paula may be good at what she does but Trip is bigger prey than she's gone after before. This is not a guy who's still holding on to his Lego collection. He's successful, drives a Porsche and, most importantly, he's Matthew McConaughey. So while Paula sets out to work her magic on Trip she also finds herself falling for him.

"Failure to Launch" also shares with Trip a promise of great potential. The plot line is cleverly constructed with lots of opportunity for both romance and humor.

There is also a genius in the casting. Zooey Deschanel is perfect as Paula's cranky roommate who is flirting with a place on The Audubon Society's Most Notorious List (In one scene a hopeful suitor offers her a BB gun as a sort of dating gift). Bradley Cooper is appropriately blissful as Trip's new-age slacker buddy while Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates make a likable duo as Trip's exasperated parents (Bradshaw has an odd nude scene with an aquarium that deserves, if nothing else, an Oscar nomination for being a good sport).

McConaughey is, of course, in his element. His easygoing demeanor is right for this movie. However, McConaughey usually works best when there is a lot of manic energy swirling around his laid-back dude as in "Ed TV" and Parker is generally at her best when she is providing it. But the movie, and to some degree Parker, falls under McConaughey's tranquil spell and seems to take the path of least resistance through the story.

Therein lies the rub. Comedy for all its goofy pretensions is a Calvinist sport. It requires a work ethic; a little sweat over delivery goes a long way. "Failure to Launch" isn't always willing to expend that kind of comic energy and on more than one occasion plops a joke on the screen and lets it sit there as if just showing up were enough.

The script deserves better. There's a lot of great material to work with; the chipmunk attack is proof enough of that.

What saves "Failure to Launch" is an unerring instinct for a good time and it manages to amble its way through some very funny bits. The make-up scene, web-cast at a local coffee house offers a lightweight satire of virtual voyeurism and an inspired moment of romantic comedy.

In the end it's hard to watch this movie and not have a good time. But you can't escape a vague pin-prick of frustration - a wish that the director had given it the old college try and went for a little more biting humor and a little less easy charm.

Bruce Bulloch writes regularly on movies at the Admiral Theatre and can be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com