Review: ‘Flypaper’
There are few things more painful than an unfunny comedy, and "Flypaper" is as painful as they come. A rather witless bank-heist-gone-wrong caper, the film at least gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like if Patrick Dempsey played a twitchy, number-obsessed savant. But is that really any sort of enticement for the average moviegoer? Dempsey produced "Flypaper," so apparently he thought so.
To be fair, the film (scripted by "The Hangover" writers Scott Moore and Jon Lucas) starts with a clever idea. Two different teams of bank robbers discover they've planned to hit the same bank at the exact same time. Mekhi Phifer leads a group of slick, top-notch pros, while Tim Blake Nelson is in charge of a low-rent, white-trash team. Reluctantly, the two groups decide to work together, holding the bank's customers and employees hostage, including Dempsey's imbalanced Tripp and Ashley Judd's days-away-from-her-wedding Kaitlin. Oh, and there's a mystery involving a man killed in the crossfire: Does he hold the secret to why the two teams unknowingly converged on the same target?
"Flypaper" was directed by Rob Minkoff, best known for kids' movies like "The Lion King," "The Haunted Mansion" and the "Stuart Little" films. So it's hard to shake the feeling that Minkoff saw "Flypaper" as his chance to make a "real" movie with swearing, sexual innuendo and all that other naughty adult stuff that you can't do when you're directing a film about a cute talking rat. Too bad, then, that rather than feeling liberated the movie is just awash in inane behavior and strained comic moments. This is a film that thinks great romantic chemistry is when your two leads bicker the whole time -- or that the height of slapstick hilarity is when a character bangs her head against something because she's so exasperated.
Those two leads are Dempsey and Judd, and it's hard to know whom to feel worse for. Judd has drifted away from the spotlight in recent years, and her sass seems to have vanished along with her star power -- or maybe like most everyone else in "Flypaper" she's just disinterested in what she's doing. As for Dempsey, he seems determined to parlay his "Grey's Anatomy" stardom into a second movie career, but between "Flypaper" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" I think I've reached my limit of roguish handsomeness from the man. The rest of the cast is either slumming or caricatures, although Nelson is somewhat enjoyable as the hick bank robber. He's basically doing his "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" routine over again, but at least he's got some foundation from which to be funny.
"Flypaper" isn't just a limp romantic comedy/bank heist film, though: It's also a mystery in which Dempsey acts like Sherlock Holmes with a five o'clock shadow. That combination of comedy and mystery worked so well for "The Hangover," but with "Flypaper" Moore and Lucas just give us pointless twists about who the "real" kingpin of the heist is. You'll probably be able to figure it out. Or maybe you won't. But either way, you won't care.
Grade: D
