Date Night is a comedy about a couple mistaken for criminals. It is also, for at least half of its runtime, a genuine thriller. That balance is the film’s great trick — and its greatest problem. The movie wants to be a light date-night comedy, a romantic comedy about two people trying to save their marriage, and an action-adventure about a flash drive full of mob secrets. It mostly succeeds as one thing and mostly fails as the others.
Phil and Claire Foster are tired. They are married with two children, living in New Jersey, and their weekly date nights have turned into a routine. Phil is a tax lawyer, Claire is a realtor, and their lives are full except for the part that matters to each other. When they find out their friends Brad and Haley are divorcing to escape the tedium of married life, they decide to shake things up. Phil suggests a fancy Manhattan restaurant, and Claire, reluctantly, agrees.
Trailer, via 20th Century Studios.
The Mistake
The trip to Manhattan is where the film finds its engine. When they arrive, they cannot get a reservation. In a moment of desperation, Phil takes a reservation under the name of a no-show couple, the “Tripplehorns.” Claire is uneasy about the lie, but she goes along with it.
What follows is a comedy of mistaken identity. Two men, Collins and Armstrong, come looking for the couple who took the reservation. They believe Phil and Claire are the real Tripplehorns, and they have a flash drive that the mob boss Joe Miletto thinks belongs to the Fosters. Phil and Claire try to explain the mistake, but the men do not believe them. They are armed and threatening, and Phil, in a moment of panic, lies again. He says the flash drive is hidden in a boathouse in Central Park.
The scene that follows, where Phil and Claire escape the boathouse by boat after Claire distracts Collins and Armstrong while Phil strikes them with a paddle, is the film’s high point. It is fast, funny, and genuinely tense. It is also the moment where the movie stops being a comedy about a couple’s routine and starts being a thriller about people who are in real danger.
The Police Problem
The trouble comes when Phil and Claire try to get help. They go to a police station, only to discover that Collins and Armstrong are corrupt NYPD detectives on Miletto’s payroll. Desperate, they realize they cannot trust the police at all.
That is a bold choice for a comedy. It turns the film into a road movie, with the couple on the run from the people they thought were helping them. It also forces the story to become darker than a typical romantic comedy would dare. The Fosters are now fugitives, and the stakes are real.
The film’s strength is in the performances. Steve Carell and Tina Fey are a natural pair, and their chemistry carries the film through its weaker stretches. Carell plays Phil as a nervous, unassuming man who is not a natural action hero. Fey plays Claire as a woman who is smarter than her husband but just as unprepared for the chaos around them. Together, they sell the panic and the humor in equal measure.
The Supporting Cast
The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Mark Wahlberg plays Holbrooke, a high-tech security expert and action hero who knows Claire from her real estate days. He is meant to be the professional who can help the Fosters, but his scenes are limited, and his role is more functional than memorable. Taraji P. Henson plays Detective Arroyo, a cop who is not on Miletto’s payroll and who might be able to help the couple. Her scenes are well-played, but they are also brief.
Jimmi Simpson plays Armstrong, and Common plays Collins. They are the corrupt detectives, and they are effective in their menace. William Fichtner plays DA Frank Crenshaw, and Leighton Meester plays Katy, both in small roles that do not leave much of an impression. JB Smoove plays a cabbie, and Kristen Wiig plays Haley Sullivan, and Mark Ruffalo plays Brad Sullivan, the friends whose divorce sets the whole thing in motion. James Franco plays Taste, and he is a small part, but he is memorable precisely because he is a small part.
The Problem With The Plot
The problem with Date Night is that the plot does not quite hold together. The comedy of mistaken identity works well, but the thriller does not. The mob boss Miletto is a presence in the background, but he is never given enough to make his pursuit of the flash drive feel dangerous. The corrupt detectives are threatening, but they are also easy to avoid. The film’s solution to the problem of saving the couple is to make the couple solve it themselves, which is a defensible choice, but it does not make the problem feel as urgent as it should.
The film also leans on a trick that is older than the genre. When a couple is mistaken for criminals, the film has to keep the audience believing that the couple is not really the criminals. Date Night tries to do this by having the couple keep insisting they are not the Tripplehorns. That is fine. But the film also has to keep the couple in danger, which means it has to keep the audience believing that the criminals are real. That is harder to do.
The two goals are in tension. The film wants to be a comedy about a couple, and it wants to be a thriller about a couple. It cannot be both at the same time.
The Running Time
The film is 88 minutes long. That is a short runtime for a film this ambitious. It means the film has to keep moving, and it mostly does. The story is a simple one, and it is told quickly. There is no room for padding, and there is no room for a slow middle.
That is a strength. The film knows what it wants to be, and it gets there quickly. But it also means the film does not have time to develop its characters beyond the basic outline. Phil and Claire are not fully realized people by the end of the film. They are a couple who are bored and who are in danger. That is enough for a comedy, but it is not enough for a thriller.
The Verdict
Date Night is a film that is better than its reputation suggests. It is not a great film, but it is not a bad one either. It is a film that knows what it wants to be, and it mostly succeeds at being it.
The film’s best moments are the ones where it commits fully to the thriller. The boathouse escape is a great scene. The scenes of Phil and Claire on the run, trying to figure out what to do next, are tense. The worst moments are the ones where the film tries to be a romantic comedy. The scenes of Phil and Claire trying to save their marriage are not bad, but they are not the reason anyone is seeing the film.
Date Night is a film about a couple in danger, and it is a film about a couple who are trying to save their marriage. It is a film about both things, and it does not always know which one to prioritize. That is the film’s problem, and it is also the film’s charm.
Date Night is a film that is worth seeing, but it is not a film that demands to be seen. It is a film that is better than its reputation suggests, but it is not a film that will change anyone’s mind about the genre. It is a film that is good at what it does, but it does not do enough of what it promises.
The chemistry between Carell and Fey is real, and the action is better than expected. The plot is the weak link.
Date Night is a film that is worth a rental, but it is not a film that demands a trip to the theater. It is a film that is good at what it does, but it does not do enough of what it promises.
The Numbers
- Release date: April 6, 2010 (New York premiere), April 9, 2010 (wide release)
- Director: Shawn Levy
- Writer: Josh Klausner
- Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Common, Jimmi Simpson
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Production budget: $55 million
- Box office: $152.3 million worldwide
- Score: 5.6/10
Date Night is a film that is good at what it does, but it does not do enough of what it promises. It is a film that is worth a rental, but it is not a film that demands a trip to the theater. It is a film that is good at what it does, but it does not do enough of what it promises.
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