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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
When Carl and Molly get married, they look forward to a life together. A dream which dies before it really gets a chance as Dupree, Carl's best man, turns up unemployed and homeless. Much against Molly’s objection Carl agrees that Dupree can stay long enough to get back on his feet... You, Me and Dupree (2006. 1 hr, 44 min, 50 sec) is a comedy film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a Michael LeSieur script. Dupree is a major slacker and so when he turns up at Carl and Molly's home his antics are the genesis of much of the film's hilarity. There are many problems with the film, the fact that none of the characters interact in a way which would reflect reality is perplexing. If Matt Dillon’s character (Carl) is being given a hard time by his boss, Michael Douglas (Mr Thompson), who is also his father-in-law, why would he not tell his wife what a douche bag her father was and some of the outrageous things he was trying to get away with? The film also fails to flow, often introducing people and elements which either play no significant part or just disappear off the script's edge. Generally there is little here that could be considered either original or radical. The cast do what they can, after all they have all appeared in much better films, but the final problem lies with the script, which fails to be funny enough to carry a whole film. My real objection to the film is that the Kate Hudson (Molly) and Matt Dillon (Carl) characters would in no way have put up with Dupree. I’m guessing that the film was trying to portray Owen Wilson’s character as a free born man-child, much misunderstood, but eventually loved by all who take the time to get to know him. Excuse me, no. Dupree shows all the major signs of a sociopath. His easy going nature and lack of real concern when he nearly burns their house down really hide a lack of understanding and genuine care. Of course Dupree knows enough about how the world work to make a half-hearted effort to repair their window, but this is only so that they do not ask him to leave. Do we actually see Dupree show genuine affection or love for any other character, except where this display forwards his own agenda of being the cuckoo in Hudson’s and Dillon's Nest. Even when the film steals directly from other material it fails to match the original. Dupree’s deliberate attempts to fail to pass a job interview are in no way as funny as the same scene with Ewen Bremner’s (Spud) in Trainspotting (1996). If you want to champion that Dupree is not the manipulative monster in the film, but a genuine man-child, then I would direct you to Peter Sellers in Being There (1979), the perfect example of an innocent abroad. The disc comes with options for Arabic, Icelandic and English subtitles on top of an English audio track. The disc contains no extras. 5 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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