Carell, Fey sparkle in comic crime caper 'Date Night'
"Date Night" steals its principal plot device from Alfred Hitchcock's classic "North by Northwest," its spectacular New York car crashes from "The Blues Brothers," and its put-upon main characters from "The Out of Towners."
By all rights, this should be a commercially successful but instantly forgettable lightweight popcorn movie to tide the American public over until Hollywood brings out the big summer guns next month.
But the irresistible pairing of Steve Carell and Tina Fey turns "Date Night" into something else, a breezy comedy of errors exploding with chemistry, quotable quips and a surprising amount of empathy, especially in a movie from Shawn Levy, director of the vacuous box office hits "Night at the Museum" and its sequel.
Carell and Fey play "just a boring married couple from New Jersey" who have gotten into a passionless rut. He plays a tax accountant named Phil Foster. She plays his real estate sales wife Claire.
The early scene where Phil and Claire prepare for bed and talk themselves out of sex is a tragically funny sequence that lets us know just how unromantic and staid they've allowed themselves to become.
That changes one night when Phil whisks Claire off to the Claw, an expensive restaurant where they don't have a reservation and are forced to wait for a table.
When nobody answers a call for the Tripplehorns, Phil impulsively seizes the moment, and the reservation, unaware that two thugs (Common and Jimmi Simpson) are waiting to abduct the Tripplehorns, whom they've never met.
They threaten Phil and Claire with bodily harm if they don't fork over the flashdrive they've been using to blackmail their crime boss.
From here on, Levy slams "Date Night" into narrative overdrive, following Phil and Claire on a nocturnal survival quest to find the flashdrive and keep from being killed by the thugs, who turn out to be members of New York's not-so-finest.
Along the way, the Fosters run across a smart and diligent police investigator (Taraji P. Henson), a security agent who never wears a shirt (Mark Wahlberg), the "real" Tripplehorns - tattooed, glue-sniffing con artists (James Franco and Mila Kunis in full-scene-stealing mode) - and a hypocritical D.A. (William Fichtner) in the pocket of a crime boss (played by a surprise, uncredited movie tough guy).
Levy loves silly action sequences, and "Date Night" obliges with a wild and destructive car chase through the streets of New York that culminates in an inventive scene involving a cab and luxury car eluding killers while being conjoined at the bumpers. Cue the hysterical tandem screaming.
Let's be clear: "Date Night" belongs to Carell and Fey, who inject the material with far more verbal wit and warmth than the screenplay deserves.
The two performers, primarily television personalities, possess an explosive chemistry that elevates every scene they're in, be it at the Peppermint Hippo where they are forced into erotic dancing (Claire is happy her skimpy costume covers her C-section scar) or when Phil tries to talk tough and just can't pull it off.
"Date Night" includes a few outtakes over the closing credits. These aren't really that funny, however they show just how Fey and Carell improvised their lines to get the best ones we just saw in the preceding comedy.
The best lines, no doubt improvised, can't be printed in a family newspaper or put in TV commercials.
That just goes to show corrupt cops aren't the only ones who can get away with murder in this film.
"Date Night"Rating: #9733; #9733; #9733; Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Common, Taraji Henson, Mila KunisDirected by: Shawn LevyOther: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG-13 for drug references, language, violence. 88 minutes