Universal’s new romantic comedy “Along Came Polly” starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston is not funny and hardly romantic. Its sub par acting and disappointing script make for a long ninety minutes.
In the movie, Rueben (Ben Stiller), a risk assessor for an insurance company, marries Lisa (Debra Messing), a real-estate saleswoman. The two seem perfect for each other. Unfortunately, on the first day of their honeymoon, Rueben finds Lisa sleeping with a French scuba instructor. With a broken heart, Rueben rushes home to New York.
A few weeks later, Sandy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Rueben’s best man, convinces him that it is time to move on and takes him to a party, where he runs into Polly (Jennifer Aniston). The three happened to be middle school classmates–what a coincidence. Rueben soon gets the courage to ask Polly out.
It becomes clear that the two are exact opposites: Rueben is a play-it-safe, “always have a plan” guy, while Polly is an absent-minded, salsa dancing girl who is afraid of commitment. The two begin changing each other’s personalities. She helps him to take more chances and learn to dance; he teaches her to be a bit more organized.
When Lisa returns from her short-lived affair with the scuba instructor, Rueben must choose between the girl who broke his heart and the girl who is changing his life. It is not hard to predict what will happen–not because of any chemistry between Aniston and Stiller, but by default. There is no other possible scenario.
“Along Came Polly” was written and directed by John Hamburg, who is best known for his work with Ben Stiller on “Meet the Parents” and “Zoolander.” The two seemed to make a great team in those movies, but in “Along Came Polly” the script never goes far enough over the edge to be funny. In “Meet the Parents,” some scenes were so painful to watch that eventually you had to laugh, but in this movie everything is so believable that it almost becomes a drama.
Jennifer Aniston gives a poor performance as a flirtatious woman who is unable to commit to anything because of past relationship problems. The character of Polly is written to be intelligent and eccentric, but Aniston just makes her seem like an airhead. Far from conveying thought or emotion, her blank stares do nothing more than suggest she may have a hearing problem. It is clear that her sex appeal and her success on the TV show “Friends” are what got her the part.
It’s hard to decipher whether Stiller does a terrible acting job or the script is so bland there is nothing interesting about his character. There is one other possibility: Stiller has played the same role–a na?ve, good-hearted man who stumbles into trouble–so many times that it’s just not funny any more. He looks like he is just going through the motions in this film, and his slapstick humor is not nearly as sharp as usual.
Supporting actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alec Baldwin provide some comic relief from the otherwise mundane drama. Hoffman does a great job playing the part of Sandy, supplying some of the ridiculousness we are used to seeing in Stiller/Hamburg movies. His scenes on the basketball court and in a community actors group are the funniest parts of the movie. Baldwin plays Rueben’s boss, a joyful Jewish businessman who is always wishing people luck in Hebrew.
Stiller and Hamburg have apparently exhausted any magic they had together in previous projects. “Along Came Polly” is nothing more than an attempt to make money off past successes and its stars’ sex appeal. Don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the marketing into thinking this movie might be something special. It will surely not be remembered as a comedy classic.
Michael McAllister can be contacted at [email protected]