Date Night

The title of this film would normally keep me at arms length. "Date Night" sounds like a bad rom-com staring one of those horrid thirty-something ingenues named Aniston-Lopes-Heigel etc. Yep, the title is a bad start. TINA FEY AND STEVE CARELL. Alright we're getting warmer. There are so few genuinely funny people in film today that it saddens me, but here, here we have two of them....together. Two! OK, ya got me. I packed myself up at midnight and went to the cineplex. No pressure Tina and Steve, but this better be good.
Ding, ding, ding! They come through with flying colors. Both of them are hilarious. Neither one overshadows the other. And here's the best part. They both play honest, reality-based characters who connect with each other and explore real issues about marriage in a no-shtick zone. Well, minimal shtick zone. This is a funny, sweet and even insightful comedy that keeps moving forward at a fast clip. The plot is a little heavy handed and if this movie is flawed it's in the implausibility of a few of the plot driven scenes. Doesn't matter. It's all about them. Tina Fey and Steve Carell deliver the goods in a big way. If you like your comedy with a dose of sincerity, a thimbleful of intelligence, and maybe even a little something to say, you'll love this. Think "The Out-of-Towners" for the new millennium. If bathroom humor and gross-out gags are more your style, skip it and grow up a little. Read a book maybe.
Oh, and as a side note, we finally found something Mark Wahlberg does really well---stand there and look pretty without a shirt.