Is marriage a promise for life? The new comedy “Hall Pass” says no. That promise can be hard to keep when everything changes with jobs, a house, kids, a life-long relationship. At the same time, some things don’t change. Rick (Owen Wilson) still checks out hot girls on the street, and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) is still obsessed with sex. With this embarrassingly immature portrait of American married males, the Farrelly brothers have brought us their interpretation of what happens when marriage gets old. Following Rick and Fred as they struggle through their mid-marriage crises, “Hall Pass” offers a lot of humor, but sadly, not much else.
Rick appears to be the exemplary husband and father: he is a successful real estate broker with a devoted wife and three beautiful children. However, he and his pal Fred, also a middle-aged married man, secretly believe that their marriages are keeping them from living their dream lives – lives in which they can hit on pretty girls without restrictions. Unable to bear their husbands’ immaturity, Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate) try to fix the situation by giving Rick and Fred a one-week break from marriage. Rick and Fred jump on the opportunity like dogs off the leash, sniffing everywhere for girls and sex.
This, of course, leads to a number of hilarious scenes, between Rick’s funny retorts and Fred’s many pathetic attempts to talk to girls. However, the film’s vulgar humor is so over the top that, while expected of a film of this nature, it may still be unacceptable to many moviegoers. Actors bare it all, and sex jokes abound. It feels like the Farrelly brothers have wracked their brains to make sure the film earns its R rating. It’s questionable how much of this lewd humor was really necessary.
The worst part isn’t the movie’s vulgarity but the fact that it can’t even get a genuine, wholehearted laugh from the audience. People may chuckle, but most of that laughter is tinged with embarrassment for the characters and pity for the actors, who actually need to put themselves through those somewhat degrading jokes.
Humor aside, the plotline and characters themselves are a bit thin as well. A fairly predictable movie, “Hall Pass” employs the same old comedy plotline with few twists – having learned their lesson, the husbands slink home like dogs. The movie’s idiotic stereotype of men is the comedy’s biggest highlight, but also its biggest downfall. Most of the time during the movie, Rick’s and Fred’s prepubescent sensibilities are occupied by food, alcohol, girls and sex. These two main characters possess little beyond their full-blown teenage immaturity, making them rather unsympathetic beneath all the humor.
Owen Wilson stars as Rick, who, with little conscience of his own, is easily swayed by his friend Fred, played by Jason Sudeikis. Wilson’s laid-back charisma has a certain soothing effect even through the worse parts of the movie. However, unfortunately for Sudeikis, Fred has such a problematic moral compass (or lack thereof) and such crude sensibilities that he is hard to find even mildly likable. Rating: 4