About halfway through the baffling, tone-deaf and ultimately wretched film The Dilemma I wondered if Ron Howard’s business partner Brian Grazer wrestled with whether to confront his friend with the difficult truth that his new movie was junk.
The Dilemma tells the tale of best buds and business partners Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, and the shenanigans that ensue when Vaughn realizes James’ wife (played quite well by Winona Ryder) is schtupping a younger guy. This is a scenario that could rip a longtime relationship in half in real life, but in “the movies,” the stakes are strangely low – especially in a movie that takes its formal cues from outrageous comedies like The Hangover.
Somewhere inside The Dilemma is a decent, dark, realistic, character-based comedy crying to get out. It is muffled by dreadful and hammy performances, endless needle-drops, unfunny montages and shoehorned set-pieces that are woefully out of place. I feel certain that Queen Latifah came to set for two days completely unaware of what movie she was in, followed Ron Howard’s misguided direction, then finally saw The Dilemma with her head in her hands. I also feel certain that screenwriter Alan Loeb meant The Dilemma to be a mature, Woody Allen-esque piece, and the picture spazzed completely out of control when large budget forces took over.
During a family gathering, Vaughn’s character goes on a self-righteous tirade about honesty. In a different context, this would be a great scene about a man cracking up under pressure. It is played here for cheap laughs and, more surprisingly, taken at face value. Vaughn is haranguing his best friend’s wife in coded language, and we are meant to be cheering this incredibly inappropriate behavior along. Nowhere is there a wink that we should want this guy to STFU. The Dilemma is steadfast in its blockheaded moral code, one optimized for maximum pratfalls and foolishness. In the hands of a better filmmaker, there would be nuance and depth, instead of paint-by-numbers plot development following the worn path where four-quadrant comedies are supposed to go. The picture ends with slow motion bromance hugs on the ice of an NHL game – just because we’re wired to like those types of endings.
I’m curious to see how general audiences will respond to The Dilemma. It feels like half-a-movie, yet it’s also about a half-hour too long. I rate it as high as I do because the female leads (Ryder and Jennifer Connelly) are acting their hearts out in what, from their end, is a drama. Also, as an anthropological study of conventional ethics, as well as just how mismatched a movie feel from scene to scene, the lessons of The Dilemma are quite valuable.
