Due Date (2010)
Certified: 16
Duration: 100 minutes
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galiafianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, Jamie Foxx
KRS release
In 2009, director Todd Phillips delivered the comedy of the year with The Hangover and, before even seeing how much cash that movie was to rake in, he signed to make its sequel which we shall see next year. Meanwhile, he brings us Due Date, which, along with last year’s Hangover and his other hot film Road Trip (2000), shows how much he has mastered the art of depicting the travails of people, especially mismatched ones, when on the road together.
Due Date’s story focuses on its two main actors who dominate the screen with their characterisations. On one side, you have Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.,), an architect who is really all business and very serious, and who is in a hurry to get home as his wife (Michelle Monaghan) is about to give birth.
Then there is Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) who is the complete opposite and who, along with his dog, will enter into Peter’s life. The two meet outside of Atlanta airport and end up seated behind each other on the plane, get thrown off the plane together and are also blacklisted from any plane! Inexplicably enough, they end up car pooling in order to reach California… Adventures and comical highlights will inevitably ensue. Episodes include Mexican antics, peculiar pre-sleep methods, spreading the ashes of one’s father and also dealing in pot.
In its script and set-up, Due Date shares a close affinity with the classic John Candy and Steve Martin’s hit Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987). In both films, two different men meet each other, everything goes wrong but the two men end up bonding while sharing the trip together. Thanks to the loose direction and the central duo, Due Date’s trip is quite an interesting one to watch.
Mr Galifianakis, who has made seven films since The Hangover, is the perfect comic foil to Mr Downey Jr; he will be the one generating the laughs. As in the 2009 hit movie, he plays a man in a child’s body, one who is not emotionally developed. He is also quite confusing in his sexuality and lives in his own warped reality made up of various television series and films.
As for the supporting cast, Michelle Monaghan is straddled with a serious role as Mr Phillips continues in his quest to bring together both comic and drama actors. Danny McBride is memorable as a veteran while Jamie Foxx is quiet slick as Robert Downey Jr’s best friend.
Due Date is a laugh-out-loud comedy, but like all buddy movies it also has its poignant moments, which feel real and heartfelt.