The irreverent comedy "Crazy for Mary" by the Farrelly brothers Peter and Bobby laid the foundation for Ben Stiller's cinema career almost ten years ago. The famous hair gel scene is now cinema history. After Stiller reached another high point in his career last year with "Nights at the Museum", it was only logical to go back to his roots and step in front of the camera again for the Farrelly brothers.
In "After 7 Days - Haggard" Stiller plays Eddie Cantrow, owner of a sports shop and still unmarried at the age of 40. Of course, he constantly earns ridicule and scorn for this - even from his own father (Jerry Stiller). But Eddie's attempts to find the woman for life have so far been crowned with little success - until one day he rushes to the aid of the attractive Lila (Malin Ackerman) when she is attacked on the street. Quickly sparks between the two, and the fierce romance ends in a completely rushed wedding. But already on the way to the honeymoon Eddie has to discover that behind the attractive facade of his wife hides a very different woman than he had thought. Nerve-racking continuous singing, life-threatening sex games and seemingly uncontrollable tantrums are just the tip of the iceberg.
And so it is already clear for Eddie upon arrival at the paradisiacal holiday resort: the marriage was a very big mistake, which it must quickly make up. Especially since in the hotel with Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), a down-to-earth high school teacher, true love seems to have crossed his path. But a series of unfortunate misunderstandings and the whims of Lila plunge Eddie into a mess that will change his life forever.
"After 7 Days - Haggard" is loosely based on Neil Simon's screenplay, which was previously filmed in 1972 as "Horse Change on Your Wedding Night" starring Charles Grodin and Cybill Sheperd. But the Farrelly brothers have freely put their own, in places quite crude stamp on the story, which brings plenty of irreverent humor from the lower body regions. Tasteful derailments are no novelty in the Farrelly films, but in many a moment the brothers have outdone themselves here. But even if they overshoot the mark a bit in the scene where Lila rushes to Eddie's aid in a particularly appetizing way after Eddie has had a painful encounter with a fiery sea creature, the whole thing works surprisingly well.
It's a fine line the Farrellys keep walking, but with plenty of heart and charm they manage to be forgiven for making adolescent jokes of the shallowest kind. This has already helped "Crazy for Mary" to enormous success, and it worked very well for the much less successful "Divorced" too. Although that style shows definite signs of fatigue here, the fine cast makes up for it. Ben Stiller once again gives the lovable loser and is not too shy for any gag, no matter how stupid. This makes him simply likeable, which of course also transfers to his film character. He is assisted by his father Jerry Stiller ("King of Queens"), who also gets to mime Ben Stiller's movie father for the first time. The most thankless role of the comedy has without question Malin Ackerman to play, but she does it so uninhibitedly silly and unabashedly that here only respectfully the hat must be taken off to the young actress.
"After 7 Days - Ausgeflittert" is neither particularly demanding, nor even remotely high-minded. The whole thing isn't really original either, since Stiller, as mentioned before, actually just delivers another variation of the character he already played several times. But thanks to some stunningly funny moments, a good-humored cast and an extremely surprising ending, this brute comedy has become a real winner for which applies: who wants to laugh again about so really nice stupid, unrestrained crude humor, should not miss this fun!
Original title: The Heartbreak Kid
Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Length: approx. 116 min.
FSK: age 12+
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
