Toi et Moi... et Duprée

Marriages can be hypocritical, and the blame always falls on the opposite party. Thus, when a marriage is portrayed in a movie, the protagonist is sometimes hard to identify. This is the case in You, Me, and Dupree, which presents all of its characters at once but gives us no one to root for. Surely they have their positive qualities, but unfortunately they are blindsided by the negative ones.

If one specific character cannot be our favorite, then we must equally support all of them: "You," Kate Hudson's Molly, is betrothed to "Me," Matt Dillon's Carl, who works for his father- in-law, Micheal Douglas' Mr. Thompson (okay, he can be "and"), and is best friends with Owen Wilson's "Dupree." Four principles, no protagonist. We want everyone to be happy, but they're just so hard to like.

Their involvement with each other begins when Dupree moves in with the newly-wed couple of Carl and Molly, who seem reluctant but generous enough to give him shelter for a few nights. Being an unmotivated leech, however, Dupree moves right in and begins making his presence more permanent than Kate and Molly are comfortable with. This sets the scene for some funny moments involving Dupree's befriending of all the neighborhood children, who probably share his intellectual level, but most of the Dupree-jokes involve feces, nudity, or sex, alone or otherwise. Toilet humor or not, it serves to buttress the point that Dupree just is not a likable person.

Lucky, then, that he's not the main focus of the story. That honor goes to Carl, who is simultaneously dealt two difficult situations: Dupree fowling his nest and Mr. Thompson trying to overlord his marriage to Molly, even suggesting that Carl voluntarily sterilize himself. We get the feeling that Mr. Thompson would take pleasure in doing the deed himself.

As I stated before, there is no clear protagonist. Molly waffles between inviting in and kicking out Dupree, Carl has outbursts resulting in physical pain (mostly his), Mr. Thompson is the father-in-law from hell we met in Meet the Parents, and Dupree will do anything to live off of someone else. They roar and they rampage until the end, but the concluding situation is calmed far to quickly and unrealistically, like a riot quelled in an instant. Many unnecessary jokes could have been replaced with plot development, but they still elicit some legitimate laughs, and that's why we came.

'You Me and Dupree', the new comedy starring the Texas charmer Owen Wilson, represents two of the breeziest hours in film this year.

Quirky and funny 'You Me and Dupree' might be a film likely to catch you by surprise. It involves two newlyweds (Dillon and Hudson) and their oafish house guest Dupree (Wilson), who is turning their new world upside down.

I can't tell you what makes 'Dupree' tick so well, but something does. As far as plotting nothing seemed to be "filler" to me. Everything seems to drive the plot forward. Though it might just be "going through the paces" the film makes those paces as quick and lively as possible.

Performance wise, Wilson brings the right amount of charm needed for us to accept Dupree. Dillon and Hudson are solid in thankless roles. And Douglas creates a good supporting character of Hudson's father and Dillon's boss. I'd also like to point out the effortless comedic flow of 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' 's Seth Rogen also seen here.

In closing, 'Dupree' represents some very breezy summer fun in the air conditioned comfort of a theater.

In the Russo Brothers' disappointing You, Me and Dupree, Owen Wilson's Dupree expounds an existential philosophy of keeping one's own character, a "ness" tacked on to a first name, such as his best friend's (Matt Dillon) "Carlness." It's a good idea dramatically to remind us all of our uniqueness and the necessity to nurture and protect it from, say, marauding fathers-in-law (in this case Michael Douglas), who might want to efface our individuality as well as get us vasectomies.

Yet the philosophical theme doesn't fit this comedy as it might Chekov's. Dupree's warm-hearted house guest slacking tests the patience of Carl and new wife (Kate Hudson). I can't figure out what Carl's character is, much less know what's worth preserving. Duprees's immature, likable, sometimes witty persona is much easier to determine. Kate Hudson's Molly is even easier, however, because all she has to do is put up with the boys' adolescent behavior and show up now and then in a bikini or white panties with her yellow hair in a breeze to let us know she inherited all of her mom's (Goldie Hawn) good traits including the promise of fine comedic timing should a script offer the chance. This script offers stinky scatology and humorless masturbation instead.

Wilson is establishing himself as an accomplished light comedian with a regrettable tendency to play the same type of charming bumbler who always has a pithy remark to make himself the poetic soul of the piece. His recurring sides of wit and boyish mischief are keeping him in enough cash to keep him from his even more talented role as co-writer with director and buddy Wes Anderson. So, I ask myself, why doesn't he do only projects that suit his creative gifts—maybe because he's lost his sense of "Owenness."

Kate Hudson is really, really cute, three hundred watt cute. But that's about all that this film has going for it. It seems to me like a lot of films I've seen, where someone comes up with a really neat premise, one that gets the green light from the studio. But then someone has to write a compelling story to go on top of the premise. And this film, like so many others, peters out at that stage. There were a few laughs, but the movie got boring pretty quick, and stayed that way. Sometimes it aimed for zany, but missed by a fairly wide margin. Unless you are a huge fan of one of the actors, you probably should pass on this one. But Kate was really cute.

I went into this movie tonight not expecting much based on the HORRIBLE reviews given to this movie on IMDb and critics reviews in today's paper. I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be another sweet movie about two male buddies that are learning to grow up.

Owen Wilson was adorable and his character was not a loser. Dupree (I won't give away his real name because it surprises you when it comes up in the movie...) gives sage advice throughout the movie. In one scene is he standing in for Matt Dillon's character at a career day, in Molly's (Kate Hudson) 3-4? grade classroom. He tells the kids that some of them will go on to traditional or socially acceptable success, while some of them (pods, he calls them!) will "float" for a while, while they wait for the calling from the "mother ship" for their destined path in life. He says "the pods that needed to hear this, did," and I laughed my butt off. His "floating pod" theory was hysterical and very accurate.

It sounds ridiculous, but it isn't. Dupree's character is consistent throughout as a lovable guy looking for his path. He's a smart, charismatic guy that makes lots of mistakes along the way. Of course the previews showed all the stupid humor (bathroom jokes, jacking off, etc) but it doesn't play as crazily over the top in the movie as it is edited for in previews.

I think the movie was as fun as it was because of the great casting. No one else could have been Michael Douglas' character (besides perhaps James Caan but he might have been too scary) and NO ONE could have done Dupree like Owen Wilson, because Dupree IS Owen Wilson.

If you're like me and you like Owen Wilson movies, you'll really enjoy this movie.

PS: There is a (hush hush) cameo in this movie when you least expect it and you'll laugh.