MOVIE REVIEW
The Dilemma
A Guy Thing? Not That Kind. And Not That Kind Either.
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: January 13, 2011
If you have seen the ubiquitous advertisements and trailers for “The Dilemma,” you might be forgiven for expecting a semistupid, semisweet, semioffensive guy comedy. It is entirely possible that Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures want you to expect just that. The movie’s stars, Vince Vaughn and Kevin James (of“Couples Retreat,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and much else) seem to grin from every billboard and bus shelter, promising beefy and boisterous wintertime high jinks of a kind moviegoers have learned to love, or at least tolerate.
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Promotional clips released last year caused some umbrage because they contained homophobic jokes, and those lame gags — about the somehow non-sexually-specific “gayness” of electric cars — are still in the movie, along with the usual exaggerated reassurances that the two main characters, who love each other dearly and whose love is tested by difficult circumstances, are Not Gay. But “The Dilemma,” written by Allan Loeb and directed by Ron Howard — hardly a name associated with frat-boy yukfests — is not entirely what it appears to be. It is less a macho comedy than what you might call a bromantic melodrama, an unabashed weepie with enough beer, sports, fistfights and cars to reassure the snuffling he-men in the audience that their tears are Not ... well, you know.
Still, “The Dilemma” doesn’t entirely dispense with the trappings of comedy. Mr. Vaughn fast-talks and overshares his way through some moderately funny if not terribly original set pieces, including an embarrassing toast and a few energetic boardroom presentations. Mr. James, overshadowed by his partner’s larger frame and smaller superego, sneaks in a few double takes and Gleasonesque moves. Channing Tatum, looking positively petite in this company, contributes a raging freakout or two, and Queen Latifah is on hand to make sure that the pale males don’t monopolize the funny.
Mr. Vaughn and Mr. James play bulky best buds romantically paired (because they’re Not Gay) with pretty, fine-boned women. Mr. James is Nick, married to Geneva (Winona Ryder), and Mr. Vaughn is Ronny, gathering the nerve and the money to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Beth (Jennifer Connelly). To ask if Mr. Vaughn and Ms. Connelly have any chemistry is to invoke the wrong science; extreme disparities of size and shape suggest, instead, a fascinating problem of zoology, as if a whippet had decided to cohabit with a yak.
Ms. Connelly is sensitive and sympathetic, but Ronny and Beth’s relationship is, for most of the film, a peripheral concern. They have some trouble behind them — specifically Ronny’s gambling addiction, which he has kept in check for two years — but their issues are not what “The Dilemma” is about.
The pivot on which it turns, rather nimbly, from screwball to bawling and back again, is a sort-of-triangle involving Ronny, Nick and Geneva, who seems to be stepping out on her husband. At least that is what Ronny concludes when he spots her one afternoon kissing someone (Mr. Tatum) who is, judging from his tattoos and the muscles underneath them, definitely not Nick.
What is Ronny to do? He and Nick are not only friends but also business partners, working against deadline on a make-or-break project. (The client is Chrysler, for whom Nick and Ronny are designing an engine that combines fuel efficiency with muscle-car brawn and noise.) Ronny worries that his already stressed-out pal will be devastated by news of Geneva’s betrayal, and Geneva’s reaction when Ronny confronts her only complicates matters further.
Mr. Vaughn plays Ronny’s agonizing indecision perfectly, throwing his large body into remarkably subtle postures of anxiety and doubt. He also displays a curious sort of masochism, allowing himself to be pummeled, humiliated and bloodied over and over again, exactly until it isn’t funny anymore and then until, once again, it is. Ms. Ryder, playing the least sympathetic character with unflinching dignity and candor, is in many ways the reason “The Dilemma” works as well as it does. For his part Mr. Howard handles the transition from humor to heartbreak smoothly, so that when raw, intense emotions rise to the surface there is somewhere for them to go.
Not that “The Dilemma” is exactly “Blue Valentine.” But within its slick, cozy, commercial parameters it has an interestingly rough texture. There is some rangy alt-rock to go with the classic hits, and views of lived-in Chicago neighborhoods to offset the postcard-ready skyline shots. If the film never probes too deeply into the pain and frustration of Nick and Geneva’s marriage, that may be because it sees them almost entirely from Ronny’s perspective. Though he has feelings, he’s ultimately a pretty shallow guy.
And the movie is not all that deep, but it does go further than many of its kind in acknowledging the hurt and difficulty that are the deep wellsprings of any comedy worthy of the name. Which, to come full circle, is what “The Dilemma,” against all expectations, turns out to be.
“The Dilemma” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Sexual situations and punch-outs. In some cases, these amount to more or less the same thing.
THE DILEMMA
Opens on Friday nationwide.
Directed by Ron Howard; written by Allan Loeb; director of photography, Salvatore Totino; edited by Mike Hill and Dan Hanley; music by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe; production design by Daniel Clancy; costumes by Daniel Orlandi; produced by Brian Grazer, Mr. Howard and Vince Vaughn; released by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes.
WITH: Vince Vaughn (Ronny), Kevin James (Nick), Jennifer Connelly (Beth), Winona Ryder (Geneva), Channing Tatum (Zip) and Queen Latifah (Susan Warner).
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