'Unfinished Business' lacks cohesion between comedic, dramatic elements

"Unfinished Business" (2015) is a road trip comedy derailed. The car was fueled, all the luggage was packed away, Siri knew the route and snacks were packed for the kids. Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson carry the acting power, Berlin provides a beautiful playground and the subpar plot gives both the actors and the director the space to play. But something went astray -- perhaps the car stalled or Siri made a mistake or dad forgot child number five. Whatever the mistake was, it was a bad one.

"Unfinished Business" tries to do a little too much. It rides the uncomfortable line of many modern comedies, trying -- and failing -- to be taken seriously.

The film follows Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn), a businessman trying to reach success in the competitive world of swarf brokerage -- the handling of metal leftovers after the completion of large construction projects. Trunkman recruits Tim (Tom Wilkinson), a seasoned and washed-up businessman, and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco), a recently hired employee of Foot Locker, as they create their own brokerage.

A year later, the company is still three strong and has now resorted to carrying out their swarf brokerage business in a Dunkin' Donuts. The trio, unsuccessful and broke, are clearly flopping -- until a client expresses interest in their service, launching them first to Portland, Maine and then Berlin, Germany in pursuit of the handshake to seal the deal.  The trio is haunted by the competition of Chuck (Sienna Miller) and Jim Spinch (James Marsden), who play some important role that is lost on the audience, much like the rest of the plot.

Wilkinson provides structural support as Vaughn takes the lead and Franco serves as a fluffer.Perhaps merely slow-witted, Franco’s character often seems entirely fabricated on the spot -- a cute boy acting dumb is sure to warm some hearts.

The plot, while somewhat boring and often lost through debauchery, comes to the audience with a gentle touch, cushioned by Trunkman’s (moderately) moving home life. As though he were journaling, Vaughn's character attempts to periodically answer his daughter’s homework assignment: “Who is your Dad?,” but the tender trace is lost to a weak story and weaker jokes.

Director Ken Scott has his short moments of brilliance. Trunkman cannot secure a hotel room, so he has to stay in a contemporary art museum exhibition entitled “AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN 42.” Additionally, scenes of protest provide a fresh background in the film. The more manageable moments of humor -- Dan’s creative way of ending Facetime calls by pretending to freeze and a tender monologue that he relays to his son about masturbation -- are sure to spark smiles. But the smiles fade as the serious issues which the plot addresses come into focus: a new dad struggling to become a good father and the profound effect of the cyber era on bullying quickly sober the audience.

The laughs wane as the movie goes on, and the audience slowly realizes that this isn’t meant to be a funny movie with serious parts. Instead, it’s really a serious movie with funny parts. In this way, the movie's purpose clashes with its trailer, its public image prior to its release and the audience’s wants.It’s a movie that is too scared to be funny yet simultaneously too timid to be serious.

The movie seems rather unfinished. Scenes set up for brilliance, such as Tim unintentionally inhaling countless bong rips, fail to come to fruition. A lewd scene involving Trunkman stripping down in a gender-neutral sauna falls rather flaccid, lacking a climax.

Perhaps it is Vaughn’s cry to be taken seriously, to finally leave the vein of comedy movies whose names are forgotten a week later ("Fred Claus" (2007), "Delivery Man" (2013), etc.). But the cry is lost somewhere between glory holes and a girl-next-door pillow fight that is somehow not sexy.

"Unfinished Business" didn’t quite crash and burn, but, like most road trips, it would have been better left as just an idea.