FilmBlather.com

"They weren't caterers! They were a man and his wife, and... lettuce!"

This is what the phrase "star power" really means. Neither Michael Douglas

nor Albert Brooks are guaranteed box-office draws, though they probably

bring their own audiences with them. But more important than the commercial

fate that The In-Laws is destined or doomed to experience is this: despite

the fact that the script is pretty shoddy work through and through, the film

itself is absurdly, gloriously entertaining. Why? Because the actors are

permitted to do what they do best: Brooks gets to play Woody Allen better

than Woody Allen himself; Douglas gets to project his trademark unflappable

self-confidence in service of a more amiable character than he usually plays

significant change of pace for an actor who earned his fame and fortune

playing greedy, unfeeling assholes).

This is a remake of a 1979 Arthur Hiller comedy (now there's a career down

the crapper). It doesn't really matter. Nothing matters very much in this

movie, except perhaps the relative screentimes of the actors, and certainly

not the details of the plot. In any case, here they are: Dr. Jerry Peyser

wedding. He is a podiatrist for the sole purpose of the joke where the

Douglas character, unaware of the field of medicine in which Peyser

practices, comments about how stressful it must be to constantly worry about

saving lives, only to have the movie cut to Peyser warning a woman about the

dangers of her foot fungus. Douglas plays Steve Tobias, the father of the

groom, and he is an undercover CIA agent.

Jerry, in his perpetually befuddled, neurotic state of mind, manages to get

himself embroiled in Tobias's plot to intercept a nuclear submarine

affectionately named Olga and thwart some baddies in the process (though it

isn't immediately clear what his intentions are). The foot doctor also earns

the ire of Tobias's tough and impatient partner Angela (Robin Tunney), and

the unreasonable admiration of a flamboyant arms dealer named Jean-Pierre,

to whom he is presented as legendary gangster Fat Cobra (Jean-Pierre: "How

many kills do you have?" Jerry: "Six.").

Other supporting players show up, most notably the underrated Candice Bergen

as Tobias's disgruntled ex-wife. The movie throws together improbable scenes

of espionage and narrow escape with perhaps even more improbable ones of

rehearsal dinners, bachelorette parties and, finally, the actual wedding.

The newlyweds, by the way, are played by the lovely Lindsay Sloane and the

impossibly dull Ryan Reynolds.

Yeah, so, okay: that's what The In-Laws is about. It could have been

unwatchable . I can easily imagine this being the worst movie of the year, a

droning, witless comedy relying on the oh-so-clever conglomeration of two

separate genres to net laughs. But here's the thing: Michael Douglas has not

made an awful movie in his entire career and he doesn't seem about to start

now. He and Brooks team up to pull this movie out of the gutter by sheer

persistence and willpower. Without them, this would have been exactly the

movie I feared it would be.

While Brooks has always specialized in nervous, fidgety characters who

deliver zingy one-liners without seeming to realize it, his resemblance to

Woody Allen here is just uncanny. When, somewhere in the second act, he has

to improvise a monologue about how his skin is actually not waterproof and

will let in water should he be forced to take a bath, I could have sworn I

was watching Manhattan Murder Mystery, part II. Jerry's perpetual

bewilderment is one joke that is milked for the entire ninety-minute running

time, but when Brooks is the one milking it, I don't mind. I've always

thought that Allen's personality and ear for sharp dialogue overrules the

regrettable fact that his movies and characters are always essentially the

same, and I'm beginning to apply that to Brooks as well.

As for Douglas, he's just himself, and that's enough. He is such a beautiful

contrast to Brooks' confused persona that whenever a script requires an "odd

couple", you could not do better than casting these two. With any luck, The

In-Laws is the beginning of a wonderful new friendship.