OWEN WILSON has been peddling his post adolescent surfer dude routine for some time now. It's a tough act to dislike, but by relying almost totally on the 37-year-old's laid-back charisma, his latest film, You, Me and Dupree (12A), much like Wilson's titular slacker, overstays its welcome.
Randy Dupree (Wilson) is best man at the wedding of his childhood friend Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson). However, while the happy couple return to their palatial home and good jobs after their honeymoon, Dupree finds himself ousted from the spare room at his local bar by a gang of drunks equally in need of a good sleep.
Agreeing to put Dupree up "just for a couple of days", Carl risks the wrath of Molly who, understandably wants to spend some quality time with her new husband.
Molly's concerns are soon validated with the free-thinking Dupree wandering around the house naked, ordering unsuitable stations for the television and clogging up the toilet.
The closest he gets to the spirit of Molly's bookish domestic goddess is getting friendly with a school librarian she sets him up with and a tub of butter.
Wilson channels the long line of deadbeats he's played in such films as Wedding Crashers, Zoolander and Shanghai Knights.
The actor is still endearing but for a resolute slacker he is being asked to do a lot of work here. The actor is used to playing off the similarly madcap antics of co-stars such as Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Jackie Chan. Here he is playing to an entire cast of straight men.
Dillon has proved himself a decent comedic actor in films such as There's Something About Mary and the recent Factotum but he is required to do little but look on in horror at Dupree's latest disaster.
Hudson is similarly wasted. She's Goldie Hawn's daughter but here plays the wet blanket to all boyish bad behaviour.
Sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo bring in Michael Douglas to provide an even more maniacal take on his Gordon Gekko "greed is good" early role, but he looks uncomfortable in the comic role.
He plays Carl's wealthy architect father-in-law who is so uninpressed by his daughter's choice of husband and provider of his grandchildren that he wants him to get a vasectomy.
There are laughs to be had. The Russo brothers gained early renown with crime caper Welcome To Collinwood which demonstrated a real flair for physical comedy and they do have some nice set pieces here.
However, they swamp some of the better gags with over-elaborate set-ups.
There may have been three people in this marriage but there is only one worth talking about and that means a pretty unsatisfying film to you and me.
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