Even though nearly the entire plot of Along Came Polly (and most of its funniest moments) are played out in the movie's trailer, there's still a lot to laugh at in writer-director John Hamburg's dizzy perception of contemporary dating and marriage.
Hamburg, a Brown University grad, is the co-writer of the scripts for the zany Meet the Parents and Zoolander, both of which starred Ben Stiller, who also is at the center of Along Came Polly. It's Stiller's wide-eyed "why me?" expression that makes him the perfect foil for Hamburg's awkwardly whoopsie encounters, whether faced with an overflowing toilet in his date's apartment or finding his new bride and an oily French scuba instructor locked in a passionate embrace on the first day of his honeymoon.
Actually, that latter encounter is what fuels the plot of Along Came Polly, in which Stiller's newly jilted Reuben Feffer (sounds like a deli sandwich) tries lamely to get back in the dating game with Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), a girl he once knew from middle school who has come back into his life. That the cautiously conservative Reuben, who does risk-assessment analyses for an insurance firm, and Polly, who lives for the moment and whose pet is a blind ferret that keeps bumping into things, seem ill-suited for each other is part of the movie's charm and its major gag.
Polly, who once lived in North Africa, loves spicy foods. Reuben has a queasy stomach. She likes hot Latin dancing. He has two left feet. Polly's apartment is scattershot, with stuff tossed willy-nilly. Reuben's apartment has everything in place, including the dozen or so throw pillows on his bed, which Polly encourages him to take a knife to.
He's controlled. She likes living on the edge. When he calls her his "girlfriend," she backs off.
Hamburg seems to be trying to revive the screwball romances of the 1930s and '40s, right down to Philip Seymour Hoffman in an off-the-wall turn as Reuben's best friend. Hoffman's Sandy has never gotten over the fact that he once appeared in a minor hit movie. He has a film crew following him around for a TV biography. His take on his role as Judas in a community theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar is to gobble up the rest of the cast and scenery, in an over-the-top wacky moment played with the utmost sincerity. Sandy is living his own legend large, and Hoffman, who looks so much like Jack Black at times that you may have to blink, gives a very Black comedy spin on the role.
Stiller has great comic timing as he lets the humiliations tossed at him build. And he works well with Aniston, who has to be a little ditzy, but not so flaky as to be off-putting. She pulls it off. No wonder Reuben is falling for Polly.
What is off-putting is that Hamburg so frequently resorts to toilet humor for a cheap laugh. Sometimes it can be very funny in a human way -- Reuben scrambling to stop that overflowing toilet after stuffing a delicately embroidered cloth down it, Reuben being fondled by his boss at a urinal -- but some of it edges across the line into scraping bottom for a laugh.
Alec Baldwin is hilarious as Reuben's boorish boss, while a pumped-up Hank Azaria steals scenes as Claude, the scuba instructor wiz ze overwhelming accent. Rhode Island native Debra Messing, of Will & Grace, sparkles as the dewy-fresh bride who gets derailed by lust. Fortunately, most of Along Came Polly doesn't derail, although, given the extensive information handed away in its previews, you may get the feeling you've seen it already.
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Along Came Polly
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Bryan Brown, Alec Baldwin.
Rated: PG-13, contains sex, adult themes.
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