Flirting With Disaster

Controversies aside, I generally like the films of David O. Russell. Well, I like Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees (The Fighter holds no interest for me). On the flip side, I'm not the biggest Ben Stiller fan, but I that has more to do with his film choices than him. Thus, I went into Flirting With Disaster with a degree of trepidation. The promise of the stellar supporting cast put me on the optimistic side, but good actors only get you so far if the script isn't there (plus, who knew how long they would be around for?).

Flirting With Disaster is good. There's little remarkable about it aside from some funny shot compositions and a very distinct sense that it was made in the '90s. There is a section of the film that made me feel bad for the citizens of Michigan since that state is represented in a highly unpleasant light. It's not much of a wonder why midwesterners are touchy about the "flyover" designation and their Hollywood representation.

The biggest issue with Flirting is the same issue I have with Meet the Parents: the comedy comes from ridiculous and unbelievable situations. For many, this isn't a problem, but trying to get laughs from a disingenuous scenario is an automatic humor killer for me. So when Mel Coplin (Stiller) knocks over a previously unseen and unacknowledged shelf of ceramic zodiac ware because he's Indian wrestling an attractive student (Tea Leoni) working on a thesis about the psychologic effect of reuniting adopted children with their birth parents and loses his balance, well, that just reeks of contrivance (and don't get me started on the presence of Leoni's character, whose presence at all is absurd and exists solely as a temptation device and not a real, round person).

This is the way most of Flirting plays out. It's not bad, but it's hardly engaging. After the second wrongfully ID'd possible parent, one might rethink the whole endeavor, but they plow forward and the film actually picks up steam thanks to the introduction of Josh Brolin and Richard Jenkins. In fact, Jenkins is easily the highlight of the movie, getting caught as the fifth wheel and accidentally getting dosed with LSD but maintaining just enough coherence to try to do his job as an ATF agent.

Even though Flirting With Disaster tends towards the outlandish, it's saving grace is its mature view of relationships. The film acknowledges various temptations and that nothing in a relationship is as black and white as it may seem (well, nothing dealt with in this film). All of the characters (save Leoni's) wind up in good places and it all feels earned. They've gone on a journey. Some are the same, but some have grown and achieved a better outlook on their life. This was a welcome surprise and makes putting up with the lesser moments of the film a lot easier.