Comedy, drama clash in Chicago-made 'Dilemma'

Ron Howard's “The Dilemma” is a Chicagoan's movie.

It was shot in the Windy City. It shows lots of Chicago locations.

It stars Chicago actor Vince Vaughn, who grew up in Buffalo Grove and Lake Forest. It features Chicago sports teams.

It even shows a brief glimpse of an Oberweiss milk bottle. Late in the story, Vaughn incorporates the Oberweiss slogan into a line of dialogue: “Simply the best!”

Regrettably, “The Dilemma” is not simply the best.

It is simply a confusing, erratic “dramedy” that preaches the importance of honesty, even though none of the main characters actually practices it.

“The Dilemma” is also a victim of a bait-and-switch marketing strategy.

Universal Pictures' trailers and commercials portray the movie as a wacky comedy about a man who sees his best buddy's wife smooching another man at the Chicago Botanic Garden, then becomes wracked with uncertainty about how to handle it.

“The Dilemma” certainly begins as a wacky bromantic comedy, but takes a bumpy detour into much darker territory as the characters shed their humorous veneers and put their true nastier natures on display.

Vaughn stars as Ronny Valentine, another typical chatterbox role for the actor.

Ronny and Nick Brannen (Kevin James) have been best buds since college. Now they operate a Chicago company that designs engines.

Nick and Geneva (Winona Ryder) appear to be happily married, and they serve as Ronny's couples model as he contemplates popping the question to his longtime girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Connelly).

Poor Ronny's world gets rocked when he spots Geneva smooching up a storm with a tattooed studly guy (Channing Tatum). His first instinct is to inform Nick.

But their company is in the fourth down with seconds left on the clock (this movie loves sports metaphors) to produce a hybrid car engine for a Dodge official (Queen Latifah, squeezed into an unsubstantial, nearly superfluous role).

Should Ronny risk the future of their company by distracting Nick with news of his wife's infidelity?

In one of the lighter moments in the movie, Ronny asks three strangers in a bank if he should inform a star athlete of his wife's unfaithfulness before the big game.

“Playoffs?” a woman asks.

“The championship,” Ronny replies.

All three agree: Don't ask. Don't tell.

But Ronny does ask Geneva about what he saw while they're together in a diner.

This confrontation instantly devolves into an emotionally brutal twist that takes “The Dilemma” into Harold Pinter Land occupied by deception, anger, resentment, selfishness and treachery.

As a director, Howard has a knack for employing comedy to explore serious domestic issues (“Parenthood”), but he fumbles the ball with “The Dilemma.” (Did I mention this movie loves sports metaphors?)

It could be a case where Allan “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” Loeb's serious-minded script fell victim to the lighter sensibilities of Howard's two comic leads, and the mix proved to be too rough for Howard to smooth out.

“The Dilemma” became the subject of controversy recently when Ronny's joke about hybrid cars being “gay” (in trailers) provoked a storm of protest.

The joke is still in the movie, framed in the most inoffensively explanatory manner that a gay joke can be made.

Moviegoers will have to decide if they want to run to theaters or pass. (I mentioned the sports metaphor thing, didn't I?)

<b>“The Dilemma”</b>

★ ★

<b>Starring:</b> Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah

<b>Directed by:</b> Ron Howard

<b>Other:</b> A Universal Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations. 118 minutes.