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Review by Dustin Putman
3 stars out of 4
Director Danny DeVito, who specializes in biting dark comedies (1987's
"Throw Momma From the Train," 1989's "The War of the Roses," 2002's
"Death to Smoochy"), does it again with "Duplex." An occasionally
uproarious entertainment, it is superior to all of the above because
it keeps its edge intact without wavering too far into the meanspiritedness
that has plagued some of his earlier work.
Novelist Alex (Ben Stiller) and magazine editor Nancy (Drew Barrymore)
are a loving yuppie couple who, in planning a future that involves
children and a safer environment, decide to move from their cramped
Manhattan apartment into a Brooklyn townhouse. The spacious duplex
they are offered is ideal for raising a family, and Realtor Kenneth
(Harvey Fierstein) assures them that their upstairs tenant, the elderly
Mrs. Connolly (Eileen Essel), is nearing the end of her life. Once
she passes away, they can have the whole place to themselves. Upon
moving in, however, Alex and Nancy discover Mrs. Connolly to be the
tenant from hell, a sickeningly sweet and healthy bat who keeps them
up all night with her television and is constantly demanding chores
of them. Driven to the point where they can't take Mrs. Connolly anymore,
Alex and Nancy decide that a lethal plan of action may be their only
answer to living happily ever after.
Written by John Hamburg (2000's "Meet the Parents") and Larry Doyle
(TV's "The Simpsons"), "Duplex" is fast-paced, witty, and expertly
set up to maximize its comedic potential. One of the more consistently
funny motion pictures of the year, the film uses all avenues of humorphysical,
verbal, and scatologicalto garner a heaping of major laughs. Comic
highlights include Alex's trip to the pharmacy and grocery store with
Mrs. Connolly, who counts everything from her prescription pills to
grapes and blueberries; a feud concerning Mrs. Connolly's clap-sensitive
television; Alex and Nancy's voyage to picking up the flu so they
can pass it on to Mrs. Connolly; and Mrs. Connolly's description of
the stairs' carpeting: "It's looser than a Dublin whore!"
Because the viewer is supposed to like Alex and Nancy, its most tricky
hurdle was clearly to keep them sympathetic even as they plot the
murder of a feisty old lady. Director Danny DeVito succeeds splendidly
at this. Mrs. Connolly is maddeningly hateful by the very nature of
her habits and selfishness, and her kindly outward demeanor only makes
her all the more spiteful. When Alex and Nancy take matters into their
own hands, their choice is truly understandable.
Ben Stiller (2001's "Zoolander") and Drew Barrymore (2002's "Charlie's
Angels: Full Throttle") prove to be a dynamite team who play the realism
out of every situation while getting to put their comedic skills to
grand use. Alex and Nancy's frustrations over Mrs. Connolly are easily
identifiable, as everyone has had someone in their life who has rubbed
them the wrong way, and Stiller and Barrymore do fine work in keeping
their character's likable but at the end of their ropes. As good as
they are, the true star of the film is 86-year-old newcomer Eileen
Essel as Mrs. Connolly. Essel is a comic genius in her every moment
on screen, full of energy, syrupy sweetness, and feuding grotesquery.
The first half of "Duplex," in which Alex and Nancy are driven mad
by their tenant, is better than its latter, where they go to any lengths
necessary to kill her. While the movie is wickedly funny and full
of energy throughout, the very lengths that Alex and Nancy do go through
straddle the lines of implausibility (even for a comedy). Their willingness
to destroy their house in order to off Mrs. Connolly seems nonsensical,
since that is exactly what they are fighting for. Despite its shortcomings
as it races to the finish line, they cannot lessen the dark delights
and sizable guffaws that "Duplex" otherwise offers throughout its
88-minute running time. The film is undemanding, sharply conceived
(its twist ending works even better than it should), and a whole lot of fun.
Copyright © 2003 Dustin Putman
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