Date Night - Don't Save this Date!

Tina Fey is the funniest woman on the planet, bar none. She’s also one of the smartest women in the business – a rare gem that isn’t afraid to show her intelligence, but isn’t afraid to dumb it down either, when needed.

But she’s funnier when she writes the words that she speaks. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in her latest effort - “Date Night”.

“Date Night” is about two people who have been married forever. You know the type. You don’t really talk anymore, unless it is to catalog a never ending to-do list. You live your life in sequential order – get awakened by the kids, send them to school, go to work, come home, have dinner, homework, kids bed, you bed. Rinse, lather, and repeat. To combat the unavoidable ennui in their lives, they do the same thing a lot of suburban couples do – they instituted “Date Night”. This means they go to the local cineplex and then their favorite steakhouse. They pick out patrons and construct their stories (the most charm of the movie). But unfortunately even that is repetitive.

Repetition is really the core of this movie. It turns into boredom. There’s a reason the run time is under 90 minutes. Were there a few chuckles? Sure. But these came usually when the two actors (Fey and Steve Carrell, hit or miss in general and missing most of the time here) are standing still, just talking. My favorite scene was at an expensive trendy restaurant as they try to get a phone number. They decide to change their appearance. Fey suddenly morphs into Parker Posey and Carrell just looks stupid.

The supporting cast is filled with famous actors doing bit parts – I’m sure you’ve already read about this. The most notable are James Franco playing a degenerate and Mark Wahlberg, playing a shirtless fantasy object. But to me that’s not really entertaining – that’s just actors having a laugh, amusing themselves more than me.

Personally, I like the rinse, lather and repeat. I like knowing what’s coming down the pike (or most of it anyway). But there’s something to also be said for the happy medium. My recent excursion to Atlantic City taught me that I do like to get out and have fun. Things don’t always have to be scheduled. Short notice isn’t necessarily bad. Staying at home all the time, although more affordable and in this heat, more comfortable, is fun sometimes – but not all the time. So, although I like my MANY routines, there’s nothing wrong with changing it up from time to time.

It just would have been nice if the screenwriters would have thought the same. When you have two of the funniest people in comedy tag teaming a film, it should have been better than this. Maybe Tina Fey should have hired the writers herself – or they should have hired her to write it.