Date Night Blu-Ray Review

• 11th Sep 2010

Date Night stars Steve Carell, showing no signs of slowing down on his recent burst of cinematic output. Here he teams up with Tina Fey the two of them perfectly encapsulating the Fosters, a suburban routine driven couple, desperate to put a bit of a spark back into their marriage by any means necessary. So to the city they boldly go and what starts as a simple but effective scenario of two banal people trying to inject a sense of risk into their date predictably, but not without giggles, soon dissolves into utter disaster. Perhaps the action is forced into play a little early, but the wonderfully believable relationship between Carell and Fey in conjunction with both actors’ perfect comic timing does get results.

There are moments which defy all logic – after stealing someone else’s table reservation, the couple inevitably end up at the centre of a of gang heist,  only to discover upon arriving at the police station to report their mishaps that the gangsters are themselves police officers.  Rather than turning them in, the Fosters do a runner, which although does open up opportunity for more comic capers, really does not make much sense in terms of human behaviour!

Truly, we are in Adventures in Babysitting territory. When a night on the town turns into a great escape from criminals, cue a random series of events and altercations with many an bizarre and un-lifelike, yet ever comic, supporting character. These range from the uptight Maitre d’ of the restaurant where it all began to a money grabbing babysitter with interjections from Ray Liotta’s gangster and Mark Wahlberg’s physically stunning private detective cum customer of Mrs Foster (much to the annoyance of Carell). The bounds of reality are frequently to pushed to the limit, particularly when Mark Whalberg’s  hi-tech apartment and garage full of sport cars and bikes appear as if by magic.

The comedy is highly contrived, but thanks largely to Carell (although Fey is not without her brilliant moments), the resulting farce is more hit than miss. The film counts on you giving in to the oddball tone of it all and suspending your disbelief, or else face getting extremely frustrated with the unpredictable and unnatural chain of events. Expect the bizarre and truly over the top and you’ll be fine.  It may not turn into the film you were expecting from its opening twenty minutes, but Date Night is one hell of an adventure and will no doubt become mandatory viewing for any girls night in.

There are some nifty little extras on the Blu-ray, including a documentary about directing Date Night which is excellent as a general dip into the world of comedic directing, and a lovely featurette with clips of cast and crew describing their own worst dating experiences. Otherwise, expect the standard deleted/cut scenes, although certainly these are not without their charm and chuckles.

Dani Singer