FAILURE TO LAUNCH — ** — Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel; rated PG-13 (profanity, vulgarity, violence, brief sex, brief nudity, brief drugs).
The title of "Failure to Launch" refers to the phenomenon of adult men who continue to live with their parents after they enter their 30s. But it could just as well refer to the film's many jokes that fizzle without attaining any sort of comic trajectory.
The film's hit-to-miss joke ratio isn't as favorable as you might wish.
You do have to admire a film that contains so many jokes, but it suffers from a cinematic personality disorder — it goes back and forth between being a cutesy romantic comedy and a considerably more strained wacky comedy.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Tripp, a 35-year-old boat salesman. This commitment-phobic bachelor often uses his parents (Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw) as a way to break up with girlfriends who get too serious about their relationship.
However, his folks have grown tired of that routine and want him to finally leave their "nest." So they hire a "professional interventionist" named Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) to become his girlfriend. The idea is that she'll teach him to become independent and to become more mature, and then he'll want to leave home. But, of course, the equally commitment-phobic Paula makes the mistake of falling for her new "project."
Tom Dey's direction is far too tentative here. And sitcom writers Tom Astle and Matt Ember have overstuffed the script with gags, as well as characters and subplots.
The best of the latter involves Paula's caustic roommate, Kit, played by Zooey Deschanel, who, frankly, deserves her own movie. As do some of the other supporting performers — especially Bates, and Justin Bartha, who plays one of Tripp's loser pals.
McConaughey and Parker don't really look right together, but, in fact, they have more chemistry than you'd expect.
"Failure to Launch" is rated PG-13 for scattered use of strong profanity (including one usage of the so-called R-rated curse word), crude sexual references, sex talk and other sexual content, comic violence (mostly pratfalls and animal attacks, done for laughs), a pair of brief sex scenes, some brief nudity (a male backside), and some brief drug content (references). Running time: 95 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com