"The Details" a mediocre, dark comedy about raccoons and marriage
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| Elizabeth Banks and Tobey Maguire |
"The Details" is an appealing, mildly enjoyable but flat and forgettable dark comedy that largely wastes a talented cast who seem to be going through the motions. After ten years of straight-laced marriage, Jeff and Nealy Lang (Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks) have an idyllic suburban home... and a relationship on the skids. Things only get worse when some raccoons ransacks their perfectly manicured backyard and Jeff becomes single-mindedly obsessed with eradicating the pests any way possible. Soon the relentless rodents aren't merely uprooting the lawn, but also overturning the Langs' entire bourgeois existence, as the man-versus-beast battle leads into an absurd mess of infidelity, extortion, organ donation and other assorted mayhem. Directed by Jacob Aaron Estes and filmed in 2010, "The Details" is a well-meaning, well-cast but forced comedy that falls short of imparting a coherent message, it's uneven script chases too many rabbits. Banks and Maguire make for a believable couple, though they both come across as vastly unlikable. There's a host of stellar talented A-list actors, some who are warm (Dennis Haysbert, Kerry Washington), while others are woefully underwritten (Ray Liotta) or annoyingly shrill (Oscar-nominee Laura Linney). "The Details" has a few fun moments watching Maguire go through an early mid-life crisis and chase some raccoons, but it otherwise tinges with a smarmy dullness.
Wes's Grade: C
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