Date Night - 30th October 2012

Change of genre this week, but how would one describe this film? A romantic feelgood comedy thriller?
It was all those things and a bit more, this week we saw;

Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey star in this 2010 comedy from the pen of Josh Klausner. They play Phil and Claire Foster, just your normal, work-a-day married couple, with two kids, a house in the suburbs of New Jersey and a monotonous, predictable lifestyle. That is, until they go out on one of their date nights.

The film opens with some scene setting, laying out their predictable life, looking at the way they are compared to their friends, looking at their work and home lives. This is just to underpin the story as it unfolds.

The date night comes from the fact they occasionally have a baby sitter and go out to enjoy a meal together, but on reflection, this also becomes dull, monotonous and the same old routine. Until, after some prompting by friends, they change tack and try something new. They head out to a posh restaurant in the city, where they find it impossible to get a table. Impossible that is, until they 'steal' the reservation of another couple, who do not turn up. This leads in-turn to a case of mistaken identity, followed by getting mixed up with the criminal underworld, bent NYPD cops and seedy goings on at City Hall!

As a storyline, it's great, original and very funny. With appearances from Mark Wahlberg (The Lovely Bones and The Happening) and a small part for the lovely Mila Kunis (Friends With Benefits), it is a well cast movie. Steve Carell is brilliant and delivers some great dead pan lines. Tina Fey is not only gorgeous, but very funny too, especially the restaurant scenes and in the out takes, she delivers a cracking, what I can only assume was an ad lib comment, which had us rolling in the aisles with laughter. (Not that our front room has aisles you understand, it's just figure of speech).
Also, there is one brilliant, if not unexpected line from the Steve Carell character, where he says to Holbrooke Grant (Mark Wahlberg); "... and will you, for the love of God, put on a f**king shirt?"
Hilarious. You will have to watch the film to understand that bit!

The film also has one the funniest and most original car chases that I've ever seen.

All in all, Date Night is a cracking movie. Definitely one to watch.