Along Came Polly Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)January 16th, 2004
"Along Came Polly"
Insurance company risk assessment specialist Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) is a happy man as he marries the woman he loves, Lisa (Debra Messing), and they head off to St. Bart's for their honeymoon. His idyllic life gets cut short when Lisa falls for a muscular French scuba diving instructor, Claude (Hank Azaria), and leaves Reuben after only a couple of days of wedded bliss. Despondent, Reuben returns, alone, to New York to pick up the pieces of his ruined life. That is, until he meets his polar opposite in "Along Came Polly."
This is the kind of routine and predictable romantic comedy that is better than it has a right to be, mainly due to its superb supporting cast. Ben Stiller does his usual insecure and uptight shtick as pathetic, overly cautious Reuben. With the exception of his riotous turn as "Zoolander," Stiller has been doing the same character we've seen in "There's Something About Mary" and Meet the Parents." "Along Came Polly" has the usual bathroom gross out humor that we now associate with Stiller and, as usual, there is a small furry animal, too. To the film's credit, instead of a cute little cat or dog, the critter in question is an aging, blind ferret named Rudolpho.
Jennifer Aniston only gets to go through the paces as the title character, Polly Prince, a free-spirited adventuress who knew Reuben when they were in seventh grade. The pretty Aniston doesn't have much to do besides feel bad for her friend and figuring out her next big escapade. Polly is such an opposite to Reuben that I had a hard time swallowing that she would even give him the time of day, never mind sex. Philip Seymour Hoffman, as washed out former teen actor Sandy Lyle, steals his portion of the show as Reuben's boyhood best friend. The slovenly Sandy lives in his glorious past and keeps trying to relive his earlier fame - to amusing affect, especially when he tries to muscle his way into the lead of the Hell's Kitchen Community Center staging of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
The rest of the supporting cast does good work, too, with Michelle Lee putting an interesting, if unlikable, spin on her perf as Reuben's thoughtless mother. Veteran character actor Bob Dishy is Feffer's father of few words who comes up with the film's best advice in the end. Alec Baldwin, as Reuben's boss Stan Indursky, is rehashing the mensch boss character he has used to such good stead in "The Cooler," but here it is just a rehash. Hank Azaria, sporting a buff bod and OUTRAGEOUS French accent, is given too little screen time as Lisa's impromptu amour. Debra Messing has the thankless job as the unsympathetic wife who cuckolds her brand new husband. Aussie actor Bryan Brown is amusing as adrenalin-junkie billionaire Leland Van Lew who is trying to get millions of dollars of insurance from Reuben's company - this subplot is little more than a distraction, save for Brown's amusing charm.
Director John Hamburg marshals his forces on both sides of the camera with a deft though not too imaginative hand. Seamus McGarvey's lens work is clean and straightforward. The rest of the techs suit this kind of film uneventfully.
This opposites attract tale doesn't cover any new ground and holds few surprises. But, the quality of the cast and the frequent bits of humor - I even chuckled a time or two - help make this a bit better than average. I give it a C+.
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