The first scene of The Dilemma starts with The Band’s lyrics, “Baby don’t you do it, don’t do it!” For some reason, these words resonated with me immediately as if they were telling me to get the hell out of the screening of this movie before it started. I didn’t heed the warning and boy, do I regret it!
The Dilemma is about Vince Vaughn’s painful struggle over whether or not to tell his best friend (played by Kevin James) that his best friend’s wife (Winona Ryder) is cheating on him. Simple enough concept that should have been delivered more than capably by this “all-star cast” which also includes Queen Latifah and Jennifer Connelly.
But the main problem with this bromance is that it cannot decide whether it is a comedy or a brutally-dark drama. If you go in thinking this is a comedy, you will be shocked and disappointed by the sinister violence perpetrated by and upon a couple of characters in the movie – something I was not prepared for or appreciated.
Listen, I watched The Fighter and loved every minute of it – so, I am not against violence in movies where I go in knowing what I’ve bargained for. But when I go into a movie billed as a romantic comedy, I don’t want to be subjected to seeing any kind of violent bloodshed. Even worse, I felt absolutely zero chemistry between any of the couples, so much so that I almost found myself rooting for the affair between Winona and Channing Tatum. Except they miserably failed to heat things up too and were terribly mismatched. And Winona played a very unlikeable character. I just did not get the point of this movie. Best I can say about it is that at least Channing provided good eye candy. At times. So, thank you Channing for making this movie bearable.
One final thought: I just want to know how did the director of A Beautiful Mind Ron Howard get attached to this train wreck?
