THE HOUSE
US, 2017, 88 minutes, Colour.
Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Ryan Simpkins, Nick Kroll, Alison Tolman, Rob Huebel, Jeremy Renner.
Directed by Andrew Jay Cohen.
After the final credits, to the ushers at the cinema asked how the film was. The spontaneous response was, “Terrible�. That had certainly been the response during the first hour of the film – but some modifying moments during the last 28 minutes held out a little hope but, the spontaneous response was “Terrible�.
Yes, it was in many ways a spoof. Yes, in many ways it was a farce. Yes, a lot of the performances were over the top. And, it was too expletived for this kind of small-scale comedy. And the director wrote the two Bad Neighbors films as well as Mick and Dave Need Wedding Dates.
Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler have done a lot of very funny comedies and even Jason Mantzoukas can be funny in an irritating kind of way. It started placidly enough with devoted parents, Scott and Kate, hoping that their daughter, Alex (Ryan Simpkins), will get into the local college as they had. Nevermind their druggie and larrikin-like past, the important thing was better behaviour now.
And, of course, this film is filled with the opposite.
When the smug head of the local council publicly announces that all city finances are to go to the building of a new pool and that college scholarships are abolished (after all everybody likes swimming more than allotting funds to students), Scott and Kate realise they don’t have the funds, despite all kinds of appeals for loans, to send their daughter to college.
In the meantime, their neurotic neighbour, Frank (Jason Mantzoukas) with a gambling addiction that exasperates his wife no end comes up with a brainwave to set up a hidden casino in his house, in partnership with Scott and Kate for him to get money to pay off his mortgage, regain his wife, and for them to send their daughter to college.
Perhaps a funny idea – but it soon turns into a bit of a wallow, mean-minded middle-classly affluent citizens with nothing better to do every night but go to a casino and waste their money. And bet on fights between bickering clients. And, defying credibility, the space in the house for the casino and the continually more expensive machines and decor certainly make it look like a mini Las Vegas. And, Scott and Kate, despite their dialogue and discerning, become more and more involved in making even more doom-ridden decisions, even Scott getting the reputation of The Butcher demanding payment of debts and, with its own bits of blood and gore, his chopping off a finger as well as the hand of the local criminal boss (unexpectedly played by Jeremy Renner).
There is a kind of obnoxious about the characters of Scott and Kate, let alone the evermore eccentric Frank, their behaviour and their steadily growing self-absorption, preoccupation with money, enjoying lording it over their neighbours.
Then there is the subplot about the head of the local council, more than duplicitous in many counts, the local police officer and his moral decisions – though that is an overstatement.
At moments, Scott and Kate come to their senses – but they don’t stay there long.
What might have been a sharp 10 minute spoof on Saturday Night Live, given the talents of the stars, this is a generally unfunny, even objectionable, look at the American middle class.
