The newest Will Ferrell comedy brings back compatriot John C. Reilly and Adam McKay as writer, director and co-producer. With a filmography that extends back to previous Ferrell films, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, McKay is in his element with Step Brothers.
Written by McKay, Ferrell and Reilly, Step Brothers follows Dale (Reilly) and Brennan (Ferrell), two 40 year-olds who are perfectly content to stay with their single father and mother and live off of nachos and fantasy football. But then their father and mother meet, fall in love and get married, leaving the boys to protest like 6-year-olds at the prospect of living together.
What ensues is a script overflowing with four-letter-words, a bitter rivalry between the men (until they become friends, of course), and a sight I really didn’t want to see: the violent tea-bagging of a drum set.
Initially Amusing
The film starts out amusing enough. People who see these movies expect them to be Will Ferrell comedies: mind numbing and entertaining. The best parts of these films usually come from comments so absurd, they’re hilarious. One such incident occurs when Brennan and Dale are trying to intimidate each other in harsh whispers from the safety of their beds. Soon, the vicious one-liners are flying and as only he can do it, Ferrell hisses,
“I'm going to take a pillowcase and fill it full of bars of soap and beat the **** out of you!”
Another such incident occurs when Brennan thinks he accidentally killed Dale with his drum cymbal. Naturally, he rolls Dale up in a carpet, carries him to the back yard and digs him a grave. As Brennan is shoveling dirt on him, Dale wakes up and this conversation ensues:
Dale: What are you doing?
Brennan: I’m burying you! Let the dirt just shower over you!
Dale: But I’m alive! My dad’s gonna wonder where I am!
Brennan: He’ll NEVER know you’re gone!
Eventually bonding over their love of velociraptors and John Stamos (if they were chicks of course), the absurdity only grows and eventually hits a stopping point. It just gets to be too much. The point where this begins is when Brennan’s brother’s needy wife latches on to Dale. Awkward sex scenes of course follow, playing along with Ferrell’s mantra “gross shockers are the best shockers.” But it is at this point, that the film goes from mildly amusing, to just plain raunchy. Eventually, it doesn’t matter if things all work out in the end. The film is about little boys, for men who love little boy humor.
The Message is Okay. . .
While the film is really no different than any other of Ferrell’s attempts, it felt as though he was trying to place the film in the same league as Apatow’s. While it’s true that Apatow’s comedies are also rife with the same four-letter-words and absurd situations, films such as 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up contain a realism makes you see beyond the absurdity and realize that at times, they’re more realistic than most films.
With Step Brothers, it seems as though Will Ferrell is attempting to make an Apatow movie, complete with a stab at a feel good message at the end -- follow your dreams and stay a kid. The message is fine. It’s the journey Ferrell took to get there that was a little shaky.
