Due Date generated a lot of buzz when it advertised co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and the oddly humorous Zack Galifianakis partaking in a road trip together. Galifianakis has been drawing attention ever since his role in last year’s film, The Hangover. His unusual and sometimes dark humor seems to push the envelope, and there is no denying he plays a great childish man; however, one can only expect so much from the same actor playing the same role in multiple movies.
I am not ashamed to say that Due Date does not live up to all the hype. Downey and Galifianakis have great chemistry on set and seem to work well together throughout the film, but the plot falls short of incredible and never really seems to progress. It is also unfortunate, but most of the best scenes are revealed in the trailer making the film highly predictable.
As far as the acting goes, in the film, Downey steals the screen. Although Galifianakis is intended to be the stage winning comic, it was more often Downey’s character making me laugh. It may seem like a step down from his role Iron Man, but Downey brings intensity unlike any other to this seemingly frivolous character. As incredible of an actor as Downey is though, it is not hard to steal the spotlight from Galifianakis. In Due Date, Galifianakis plays the same idiotic childish character we have seen countless times. He is awkwardly funny, but the performance is repetitive and, at times, hard to take seriously.
The premise for Due Date itself is simple: a road trip with two unlikely companions. They are traveling together because of some crazy circumstances and they both happen to be going to the same place. Of course, the differences between Downey’s and Galifianakis’ characters make for an adventure that is bound to go terribly wrong. The story, however, never quite develops beyond the dastardly trip itself. It seems as though the progression is: Galifianakis causes mayhem, Downey gets irritated, Galifianakis causes mayhem again, Downey gets irritated, and so on.
Any sense of the plot thickening, or any sense of consequence is completely absent, and the terrible events that occur are almost entirely forgotten by the following scene. Due Date is missing an element of growth between the two characters that most road movies have. Without any character development, the journey lacks any unifying meaning. Essentially, the journey is only physical, and we miss out on the “emotional journey” that easily could have been incorporated.
Such a void could only have been filled by outrageously hilarious scenes, something else the film lacks. Granted, there are plenty of scenes that are laugh out loud funny, but they are either previously revealed through trailers, or we have seen them in other films. It was hard to find myself entertained throughout a majority of the movie simply because I already had an idea of what was going to happen. There are certainly parts of the film that stood out more than others though, and it did generate some genuine laughs here and there.
Due Date was made out to be one of the greatest comedies of the year, but simply fell flat; it was a general disappointment. I found myself wanting to laugh more, but it just wasn’t that funny. I found myself waiting for the plot to twist, but there were no surprises. I found myself wanting more out of the film in general, but just didn’t get what was expected.