Ben Stiller seems doomed to repeat "There's Something About Mary" for the rest of his film career.
The 1998 comedy hit made Stiller a real movie star, but, with only a few exceptions, the comedies he's made since have just been thinly veiled variations on that film's themes and characters. But none has managed to balance the crude humor with warmth and sweetness nearly as well as "Mary."
Sadly, "Along Came Polly" is no exception. If anything, it's one of the more disappointing Stiller comedies, since it pairs him with the appealing Jennifer Aniston.
Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, an insurance risk-assessor who lives his life as carefully as possible. Unfortunately, his seemingly low-risk marriage comes apart on the honeymoon, when his new wife, Lisa (Debra Messing), runs off with a seedy French scuba instructor (Hank Azaria, buffed-up and sporting a ridiculous accent).
Broken-hearted as a result of this development, Reuben comes home to find his friends and family prodding him to get on with his life. But they're as surprised as anyone when he starts dating Polly Prince (Aniston), a former school classmate who is his direct opposite.
Soon enough, the vanilla-bland Reuben finds himself eating spicy food, learning Cuban dancing and doing other things he would never have dreamed of, if not for the free-spirited, flighty Polly. Their promising romance is threatened by two things, however: Polly's fear of commitment, and Lisa, who's returned to town and claims she wants Reuben back.
For a film that's about experimentation and trying new things, this one ends predictably and conventionally. And filmmaker John Hamburg stoops to cheap toilet humor and dumb slapstick rather than exploring his characters.
The leads do have chemistry, however, and Stiller does make a good everyman. And the supporting trio of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin and Bryan Brown all put in separate bids to steal the show, albeit unsuccessfully.
"Along Came Polly" is rated PG-13 for crude references and sight gags about sexual and other bodily functions, simulated sex (done for laughs), scattered use of strong profanity, some slapstick violence, brief male nudity (backsides) and brief drug content (use of prescription drugs). Running time: 90 minutes.
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