VIDEO Flirting With Disaster This movie has a sitcom-esque title, a sitcom-esque plot, and thanks to the presence of stars such as Mary Tyler Moore and Alan Alda, a sitcom-esque cast.
And a cracking TV sitcom pilot the movie would have made too.
It is the story of Mel (Ben Stiller), a man suffering from what he considers to be a stultifying marriage. The movie opens with him returning home to a romantic evening with his wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette), who is trying to restart their sex life after a post-pregnancy slump.
Unfortunately, Ben has forgotten about their saucy plans and has brought home a guest. What ensues is a fairly standard 'trousers down, look out, here comes the vicar' bit of slapstick. All a bit tame for director David O Russell whose last movie Spanking The Monkey was the tale of an incestuous relationship.
Having established the tone with this rather weak opening, Russell goes on to introduce the main story. Mel, adopted, has developed an obsessive desire to find out who his real parents are, a desire brought on by having a child of his own.
His search starts at an adoption agency where he meets the attractive and flirtatious psychologist Tina (Tea Leoni). She offers to help him find his parents and to look after his sanity during the traumatic process. Mel, Nancy and Tina duly set off on the search. They find the mother, but just after the emotional reunion, Tina realises - whoops! - that she has made a mistake, and they have to beat a hasty retreat. All this while, Tina and Mel's relationship is getting increasingly steamy, and unfortunately a good deal of the rest of the movie is spent examining Mel's reactions to Tina's increasingly obvious advances.
It used to be the British who got off on this kind of thing, but increasingly puritanical America has lately come to embrace the comedic possibilities of watching an unavailable man fight off an over-sexed woman. A surprisingly unhip film from the man who is meant to be one of America's more clued-in young directors.
