Prepare to be offended, ladies. Howard Deutch's new film, "My Best Friend's Girl," moves quickly to disturb and outrage its intended audience: the romantic comedy patron. Although some Dane Cook fans will be satisfied by his go-to character (the obnoxious frat boy), most will feel violated by the film's transparent objective to let Dane Cook act like himself and its blatant disregard for human decency.
Alongside Cook, "My Best Friend's Girl" stars Kate Hudson and Jason Biggs. Cook plays Tank, a deliberately evil take on Will Smith's character in "Hitch" (2005). Tank's lucrative hobby is using his skill of being a huge jerk to make women realize that there really are no better men out there and that they should settle with the ones they have left. The movie's most offensive moments occur when Tank is in full-mode on his dates with these women. One such gem occurs when Tank says to his date, "We start with a blowjob. Some girls think of it as a chore, but I turn it into a tutorial."
The film adheres to the same strict outline present in most recent romantic comedies. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that this outline is consciously being followed when Tank reveals his "game" and describes how he has to set up a "meet cute" with each of the women he plays. Following every rule in the romantic comedy handbook, Jason Biggs plays Tank's pathetic best friend and cousin, Dustin, and Kate Hudson plays Alexis, the love interest of both men. Dustin is stuck in the "friend zone" with Alexis, so he promptly hires Tank to take Alexis out on the worst date of her life. The central conflict of the film is based on the balance between Tank's supposed need to be a "bad guy," his friendship with Dustin and his newfound — but completely expected — love for Alexis.
The main problem with this film is not its vulgarity, which can be, at times, very entertaining, but rather its inability to make its audience feel any connection with its three main characters. A successful romantic comedy requires the audience to want things to work out well for its characters. In this film, Cook's semi-sexy portrayal of Tank is funny, if you're into his type of humor, but it is difficult to foster any real emotional attachment to him. Deutch obviously attempts to make him likeable, but it is hard to like anyone who is that big of a jerk.
Dustin is meant to be the "nice guy," but the Jason Biggs "nice guy" everybody loved in "American Pie" (1999) and "Saving Silverman" (2001) has been transformed into a pathetic stalker-type loser. The film's most frustrating character, however, is Hudson's. Alexis' motives are confusing when she wavers between wanting a boy-toy and somebody who really cares about her. Hudson is charming in most of her films, and although she is absolutely stunning in this one, there is never that a-ha moment where the audience falls in love with, or even likes her.
The film is much improved by a surprisingly good soundtrack and its two supporting roles. The first genuinely enjoyable moment, besides the occasional belly-laugh from Cook, is when Lizzy Caplan (who played Janice Ian in "Mean Girls" (2004)) appears as Ami. She is sharp and quirky and brightens up each scene in which she appears. Alec Baldwin plays Tank's father and is often even more offensive than Tank. Baldwin's character is an ironic twist on a women's studies professor and plays a more extreme version of Cook's character. The moments where he is on screen are hilarious, but it becomes very obvious to the audience that he only goes to such extremes because he is Alec Baldwin and he can get away with it. Nonetheless, there are some outrageously funny scenes brought to the audience courtesy of Baldwin.
"My Best Friend's Girl" is not a complete waste of time, due to Cook's ability to make people laugh, but it is just a bad movie. Almost every person in the theater laughed at some point or another, but everybody left with the same underwhelmed feeling. Fortunately for the producers, the film is sufficiently cliché and offensive that audiences won't remember it by the time the next run-of-the-mill Dane Cook movie gets a green light.
