MY BOSS'S DAUGHTER

US, 2003, 88 minutes, Colour.
Ashton Kutcher, Tara Reid, Terence Stamp, Molly Shannon, Michael Madsen.
Directed by David Zucker.

Only a short running time, but this is a tough one to sit through. Having seen it on a plane, I had other things to distract me when necessary (a lot of the time). Ashton Kutcher seems to be having a star run in Hollywood (Dude,Where's My Car, Just Married, Texas Rangers) but, on the evidence of his films, one is not sure why. He has a reputation for practical jokes on Saturday Night Live, so this might be the reason for this comedy of errors where he has to mind his boss's house for a night and everything that could go wrong does go wrong - in the most raucous and grating way.

The cast, especially Terence Stamp as the curmudgeonly boss and Michael Madsen as a drug debt-collector go through humiliating routines. David Zucker (Flying High, Ghost) employed his farce techniques to better effect in Scary Movie 3.

1. A broad American comedy? Farce? Its appeal to the broad audience? Many audiences finding it too silly?

2. All the action taking place in one hectic day, the Chicago setting, the trains, the offices, the affluent house? The musical score and the songs?

3. American farce, clever, stupid? The characters as one-dimensional, taking part in the farcical incidents? The theory of mix-ups means funny?

4. Ashton Kutcher as the hero, the narrator, being stuck in the train door, the magazine, the gay magazine and his case opening, people's comments, his friends', going to work? Lisa and his attraction, her seeing the magazine and thinking that he was gay? At work, ideas, wanting to tell the boss? Summoned to the boss's office, his response to the boss's erratic behaviour, asking for opinions, Audrey's arrival and her being sacked? The boss and his harsh routines? Lisa and her appeal for help, to baby-sit the house? His thinking he had a date at a party? The discussion with his friends? Going to the house, discovering the reality that he was house-sitting, the boss and all his injunctions, instructions? The question of the owl? Not disturbing the house?

5. The series of interruptions: the brother, his arrival, the fact that he shouldn't have been in the house? The thug and his gun, the demands for getting money, the drug deals, thinking that the hero was the brother? The issue of drugs, the shooting, the burying of the thug in the garden - and his not being dead, coming alive? Audrey and her arrival, her anger with the hero about being sacked, her wanting to be friendly, bringing all her friends, their trashing the house? The issue of the owl, its escape? Lisa and the clash with her boyfriend, arriving home, the discussions with the hero, the boyfriend and his arrival and his being made to see the situation? The hero and the neighbouring house, the guardians, the date and her disabilities? The boss arriving home, the absolute mess in the house, the friends trying to clean it up, the issue of the drugs and the criminal reputation of the boss, the rash on the bottom - and the police and their response?

6. Terence Stamp as the boss, his character, his injunctions, the return home, the test of whether he had the rash, the issues of pissing in the place? Jobs, the hero being sent to Thailand, the return of the owl?

7. Lisa, the boss's daughter, work at the office, her boyfriend, her thinking the hero was gay, asking him to mind the house? The interactions with her brother? The boyfriend, the hero giving her a sympathetic ear? The finale, talking with her brother, her father in the tree overhearing everything? Not sending the hero to Thailand? Her falling in love with him?

8. Audrey, Molly Shannon's comic style, being sacked at the office, arriving at the house, her friends, their messing everything up, the problem of the shooting, the burial, the police?

9. Michael Madsen as the villain, standover man, the discussions with the hero, the drugs, the mistaken identity, the shooting, his burial, his emerging from the grave?

10. The neighbouring girl, expecting the date, the hero turning up, her feeling rejected, the family and their attitudes? Coming down to the boss's house, the girl finding romance?

11. The film received very unfavourable reviews - deserved or not