Due Date

Due Date Review

The film we saw in the most recent Film Criticism and Review class was “Due Date.” Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis lead this on-the-road comedy from the director of The Hangover. The film takes place all over, starting in Atlanta and going to Los Angeles. The main character Peter wants to witness the birth of his child but he is kicked off a plane and put on their no fly list thanks to a nitwit stranger. He ends up taking a ride with that stranger all the way home because he loses his wallet he is desperate. Due Date is a severely bi-polar crude comedy that often drifts into drama because of the heartfelt characters.

The movie begins with the two characters not getting along so well, but making the best of their situation. Peter and his traveling buddy Ethan come to know each other along the way. Peter belittles Ethan when Ethan tells him that he wants to be an actor. He sympathizes with Ethan however when he sees that Ethan is broken-hearted over his father’s recent death. Ethan carries around his father’s ashes which later factors into the film’s hijinks. The film is all over the map in its brands of comedy. Things go from mildly realistic, to sappy, to extremely crude, to highly violent, to absurd and then finally to ‘laughing at the barn door’ at the end. They eventually become true friends in the film, even though the relationship is still highly strained. Peter gets saved by Ethan, then betrayed by him and then the relationship bonds one last time when Ethan gets a wounded Peter to the hospital to see his child being born.

Like I mentioned above, the direction in which the film takes its comedy makes strange turns. The best example of this is when Peter gets detained for drug-possession at the Mexican border and Ethan manages to hijack the trailer that Peter is being held in. He fights off the Mexican police in his car and they end up on the run in a Border Police truck. This takes the film in direction that makes the whole thing far less believable and it didn’t even warrant one laugh as I recall in the theater. This might very well be the part where the film ‘jumped the shark’. I found the drug trip that the two protagonists when through in the previous scene to be a lot funnier and more appropriate to the story. Peter imagining Ethan as a bear driving their vehicle was probably the funniest point in Due Date for me. I feel like that is where it reached its peak and it sort of drifted downwards from there.

The acting is quite good on the parts of both Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr. has established himself as a serious actor over the past two decades with impressive performances in films such as Good Night, and Good Luck; Iron Man; Zodiac; and Tropic Thunder. Galifianakis, however, is known for just being a comedian who doesn’t take himself too seriously so we just expect laughs from him. He does deliver, however the script isn’t exactly up to par. Aside from comedic skills, his actual acting is surprisingly good. He is a very competent actor and this helps him be the perfect foil for Robert Downey Jr. Jamie Foxx has a cameo as well and does a competent job. Foxx doesn’t really add anything however.

All in all I moderately enjoyed this film. The actors carry the film, so thank heavens we have two wonderful actors whom are very versatile. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars. I laughed at several points and it had truly awesome cinematography.