Rated R for language, sexual content and drug use
Cast: Topher Grace, Dan Fogler, Anna Faris, Teresa Palmer, Chris Pratt
Director: Michael Dowse
The mental weight of that self-image made it difficult for me to move to the next chapter of my life, despite the inherent potential to do so. The same is true for Matt Franklin, the hero of “Take Me Home Tonight.” The story is set in the late 80s and focuses on characters a few years removed from their high school experience. Some have entered the next phase of their life, but most are struggling with those adolescent doubts that have cruelly set up shop in their psyche…
…but I’m getting ahead of myself with the theme discussion. The film, which takes place over the span of a night, is a comedy first and foremost. A raunchy, in-your-face, balls-to-the-wall buffet of madness. It gets mileage from its sheer lunacy. But there’s potential for more here. For a while, I really thought it was going to exercise that potential. No such luck. Potential is nothing without faith, and this film lacks it. By the end, all this amounts to is a ninety-minute blown opportunity.
Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) was the brightest of the bright in high school. He graduated at the top of his class, attended MIT but now suffers from a glaring lack of ambition, choosing to work at a video store. This doesn’t sit well with his father (Michael Biehn), a patrol officer who’s more than willing to make his feelings public. (How he put his son through MIT on a patrol officer’s salary is beyond me, but never mind.)
One day while at work, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer) enters the video store. She was Matt’s high school crush, though he never had the nerve to ask her out. He quickly ditches his uniform, passes himself off as a fellow customer, and they get to talking. She asks him what he’s been doing with his life. He tells her he works at Goldman Sachs. A good a lie as any. He agrees to meet her at a party. With his cute, whip-smart twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) and his recently-fired salesman best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) in tow, they head out for a most memorable of madcap nights in Beverly Hills.
The film contains mounds of humor, with Dan Fogler’s Barry towing the comic line. Upon losing his job at an auto dealership, Barry vows to dive into the party-going experience with unbridled fervor to make up for time spent in the workforce. His efforts land him in some sticky situations. (When trying cocaine for the first time, he gets more on his face than up his nostril. Another scene has him the unwitting participant in a bizarre three-way bathroom sex romp.)
Matthew, meanwhile, continues in his attempts to finally get close to that elusive crush. At the same time, Wendy keeps up appearances with a dead weight boyfriend (Chris Pratt) who has mapped out their future together with no regard for her career aspirations.
When I was growing up, the late John Hughes was ruling the adolescent anguish roost. His movies, to me, took on the form of theatre-in-the-round stage plays of teen angst. Before he emerged onto the scene, teenagers in movies were limited to empty-headed sex and toilet humor escapades. Hughes proceeded to tear down the apprehensions between ordinary kids who, more often than not, shared similar insecurities. For once, we were finally given full dimension. A voice.
At times, “Take Me Home Tonight” hints that it wants to deal with these characters in a more meaningful way, but it doesn’t have the faith to follow through. If there's one thing more frustrating than a movie that never amounts to anything meaningful, it's one that acts like it wants to, yet never bothers.
If all you’re after is ninety minutes of raunchiness, this one may do the trick. In the end, I suppose what we have here is a movie where characters survive a night of humor, drugs, sex, tears, vomiting, bizarre trysts, car accidents, near arrests… and somehow end up better people for it. Go figure.
* * out of * * * * stars
