How do you stop your romance getting stale? After a long days slog at the office and a vexing time trying to get the kids not to hit each other, romance is often the furthest thing from your mind.

Phil (Steve Carrell) and Claire (Tina Fey) Foster have long become accustomed to their well worn rut. Even their attempt to grab some us time in the form of their weekly date night is wearing a little thin. When close friends of theirs reveal theyre getting a porce (were just really good room mates), alarm bells start ringing.

Attempting to reignite some spark in their marriage they ditch their safe steakhouse for an exclusive restaurant uptown. But unable to get a booking, they instead take the table of a vacant party leading to a case of mistaken identity and a lot more than they bargained for.

The plot is absolutely ridiculous the Fosters get chased across town by some corrupt cops, involved with some ostentatious car chases and cause more real estate damage than a hand grenade on Oxford Street. But thankfully its funny enough that this is easy to overlook; its certainly not a film thats taking itself very seriously.

The plot being extraneous, its up to Carrell and Fey to bring the movie to life. Both of them are leads in some of the biggest mainstream American comedy shows (Carrell in The Office and Fey in 30 Rock) and putting them together works like a charm – the Fosters end up being a very natural and likable couple.
Date Nights on much firmer ground when the Fosters arent involved in an action set-piece they do comedy and do it well and explosions frequently just get in the way of the funny.

Its a plot which would have turned very quickly sour in the hands of a different cast. If say, Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz had been put in the same roles, the movie wouldnt have been nearly as amusing, merely tired and lame.

Its aided by an all star cast of cameos including Mark Wahlberg as a shirtless security expect, Ray Liotta as a mob boss (whod have thought it?) and William Fichtner as a crooked and kinky District Attorney. Mila Kunis and James Franco also put in a memorable appearance as the couples mistaken identities (a scene which was apparently 80% improvised).

Despite a plot which stretches the word credibility to breaking point, its comedy pedigree is enough to make sure that this is quickly forgotten. Instead, it remains sparklingly fresh for its duration and is crucially, extremely funny.

 

 

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By: Jez Sands