Due Date is a crude, vulgar and unrelenting buddy movie

Due Date – 2010

Directed by Todd Phillips

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan

Screenplay by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel, Todd Phillips

Todd Phillips is an enigmatic wonderland.  There are moments in his films that make one want to turn it off.  These are often followed by moments that are touchingly poignant and astute.  Then back to the repulsive…repeat.  His work in Road Trip and Old School were enough to make a cinematic asterisk in comedy for the late 90’s and early 00’s.  After meandering through Starsky and Hutch and School for Scoundrels, he hit a goldmine with 2009’s The Hangover. In between the highest grossing R-Rated comedy of all time and it’s sequel, he turned a retread plot (Planes, Trains and Automobiles) into another immensely profitable film.  That retread has enough twists to feel original.

Peter Highman (Downey, Jr.) relates a dream to his wife via phone message before heading to the airport.  His dream involves a bear, his pregnant wife, and their child being born.  The bear cuts the umbilical cord, and somehow he is okay with this.  As he approaches the airport, the town car he is riding in is winged by a piece of crap station wagon.  The passenger in this station wagon is Ethan Tremblay or Ethan Chase, depending on when you ask.  He is an eccentric wannabe actor, leaving Atlanta with his father’s ashes heading to L.A. for his big meeting with an agent.  Within an hour, they are both kicked off the airplane, placed on a “No Fly” list.  Peter, who is without his wallet, is forced to drive with Ethan (who has rented a car) on their way to L.A..

What follows is a series of twists and turns that is as odd as it is entertaining.  Ethan expresses a need for medical marijuana, and frequently puts their journey at risk because of this.  This along with many other sources of annoyance and real life endangerment makes for an unusual if not entirely original, plot wise.  The script writers and director do more than enough to make up for this.  I would not say that the movie is at all unhinged.  It is all entirely plotted out.  The feeling of this film replicates all Phillips best work.  The pacing is excellent, if varied, the soundtrack sets and fits the mood when appropriate, and the cast is sharp, alternatingly angry, valiant and endearing.

Downey, Jr. continues his resurgence from great sideman to incredibly skilled lead.  His mood swings are completely shocking at times and, for the most part, believable.  While not necessarily the everyman that, say, Steve Martin could play, he plays a good everyday asshole.  What he does to the little boy he has to watch at the drug house is priceless.

Galifianakis, however, is extraordinary.  His character, not to mention speaking style,  is one of the most unusual I have experienced.  Many of the heaps of praise given to him for The Hangover, I did not so much understand.  I am going to have to watch it again.

One of the tags to this movie is “Leave Your Comfort Zone.”  The description could not be more accurate.  Much like the Farrely Brothers before him and the Zucker Abrams Zucker before that, he takes chances with the assuredness that you will continue watching.  Rather than being of the time (since I am sure watchers of movies from previous eras would not have made it past the first 5 minutes), Phillips is one of those directors whose style defines its time.  People will be employing similar tactics quite painfully 5 years from now.  There are moments in this movie that are truly disturbing.  There is a ritual that Ethan performs (and his dog mimics) nightly that made me want to turn the movie off.  I didn’t, and I am glad for that.

The biggest problem one could ascribe to this movie is when absolutely astonishing things occur and they incur little notice or only enough to keep  from stalling the movement forward.  These events include a horrific crash, an astounding border incident and a mad dash with lights flashing with a stolen vehicle from the Grand Canyon to a hospital in L.A. that incurs no police notice.  Lights flashing.  Hundreds of miles.  No cops.

The three positives for this film, Phillips, Downey Jr., and especially Galifianakis are enough to make people with stronger stomachs give this movie a try.  But just remember, this film is a hard R.  No dignified women.  Definitely no kids.

(***1/2 out of *****)