Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson; Director: Shawn Levy; Producers: Shawn Levy, Tom McNulty; Screenwriter: Josh McLaglen; Music: Christophe Beck; Editor: Dean Zimmerman; Genre: Comedy/ Romance: Cinematography: Dean Semler: Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Location: USA; Running Time: 88 min.;Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
Clair and Phil Foster (Tina Fey and Steve Carrell) are an ordinary though likable suburban New Jersey couple whose idea of married bliss is hiring a baby sitter once a week so they could enjoy their “date night” on the town. And their weekly date night—far from being a moment of exotic erotica to revive romance in midlife—simply means dining out and privately making fun of unsuspecting diners who stimulate their imagination. On this particular date night, Steve takes Clair to a new fancy restaurant in New York. Skipping the long queue to be seated, they grab a reservation for two for “the Tripplehorns”, pretending to be the absent couple. Then two gun-toting hit men pop into the scene, demanding that the Tripplehorns surrender a sensitive computer gadget or else… They cannot argue at gunpoint that they are not the real Tripplehorns, thus they are tossed into a crazy chase involving two crooked cops (Jimmi Simpson and Common) and their mob boss (Ray Liotta), the real “Tripplehorns” Taste (James Franco) and Whippit (Mila Kunis), and a security expert who’s an untypical combination of muscles and sympathy, Grant Holbrook (Mark Wahlberg).
Fey and Carell wouldn’t have been better cast as the Foster couple in Date Night. They—or their performance—are what makes the movie really funny. They can make us believe they’re a real couple from suburbia who are….well, who are who the Fosters are! And they involve the viewer in the whole 88-minute film run! When actors in a comedy don’t seem aware that they’re acting out a comedy, they become really funny. The plot is, of course, as bizarre and implausible as all comedy-action plots go, but the dialogue is smart, the characterization precise, and the direction by Shawn Levy flawless. Few cinematic couples exhibit this high degree of chemistry as Fey and Carell do in their roles here. If Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sizzle in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Kate Winslett and Leonardo DiCaprio smolder in The Titanic, Tina Fey and Steve Carell bubble over in Date Night.
Date Night is a perfect movie for a date night, especially when your date is the person you’re married to. There are no “moral lessons” to speak of in Date Night, but it offers a sensible tip for fine-diners: when at a chi-chi restaurant in, wait for your turn and suffer the gay receptionist because, as the Tripplehorns show, impatience is a punishable crime. Date Night also affirms the reality of mob-employed cops, and proves that even tattooed toughies can kiss and make up like ordinary suburban couples. Date Night also makes you realize that not all ex-spies are dehumanized by their careers and die biting a dagger—some retire while they’re still human and become compassionate “security experts” with state-of-the-art espionage gadgets and state-of-the-heart sex appeal.
