Unfinished Business
Director: Ken Scott
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco, Tom Wilkinson
91mins; Class 15;
KRS Releasing Ltd
A title like Unfinished Business is just begging to be punned to death, especially when the finished product it headlines gives the impression that the business of writing, producing and directing it remained, in fact, unfinished.
It is truly tiresome to have to contend once more with a storyline whose premise is paper-thin and which, as ever, needs to rely on raunchy, often in-your-face sexual humour to get by.
After yet another altercation with his boss, Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn) decides to quit his job and set up on his own, with about-to-retire accountant Timothy McWinters (Tom Wilkinson) and a young, inexperienced sales manager Mike Pancake (Dave Franco).
Over a year into their new venture they are on the brink of concluding their first business deal. What starts off as a simple overnight stay in Portland to get that final handshake between gentlemen ends up in a chaotic trip to Berlin, Germany with Trunkman desperate to conclude the deal, while back home his two young kids contend with their own problems at school.
This is a film that includes stops at a sex fetish festival and a G8 economic summit. Had it exploited the various comic scenarios this contrast could offer, it could have been really funny. It’s not. It is never funny at all. The story is stuck in a rut with Dan’s former boss always one step ahead of him; Tim constantly moaning about his impending divorce; and Mike fixated on seeing ‘some action’ on this, his first business trip.
The laws of lame comedy dictate that in the absence of genuine humour, get the protagonists drunk and high and throw in in some puny sex hijinks.
That the goings-on back at Dan’s home are infinitely more interesting than what happens on the business trip says much about the story.
Premise is paper-thin
His overweight son is fighting a losing battle with school bullies, while his cute, but precocious, daughter is doing some bullying herself. Therein lie the seeds of an appealing look at an all-too-common social problem.
Yet, we are privy to this aspect of Dan’s life solely during the FaceTime conversations between the family which he often cuts short by pretending the screen has frozen (an oft-repeated gag highlighting the script’s lack of ideas).
There is never any doubt of the outcome and that it is all resolved with a greeting card maxim just goes to show the superficiality of the script.
What is really surprising is that the film was written by Steve Conrad, the man behind 2014’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a film full of relatable, well-rounded characters, a superb storyline and just the right mix of poignancy and humour – none of which are present here
The role of the smooth, fast-talking, yet somewhat put-upon guy is one Vaughn can do in his sleep; and it feels exactly like that, so little effort seems to be put in. Tom Wilkinson probably had an I-want-to-appear-in-a-lame-American-comedy itch he wanted to scratch and Dave Franco’s portrayal of a mentally-challenged guy whose name – Mike Pancake – is the source of a one-note joke (‘Pancake? Like the breakfast?’) falls short of being offensive by the actor’s innocent charm.
As often is the case in these ‘bromances’ the two women in the story are reduced to cyphers – the harried wife at home raising the kids (June Diane Raphael) and the heartless bitchy businesswoman, Dan’s former boss, in a rather wooden performance by Sienna Miller.