Review of Duplex (2003) by Stuart K — 30 Apr 2014
Directed by Danny DeVito, who is a master of directing black comedies like Throw Momma from the Train (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Death to Smoochy (2002). This one was written by Simpson's writer Larry Doyle (Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)).
It's a very unlikeable comedy, but that's the point of the film, but it's mean-spirited nature unfortunately does work against it. Young married couple Alex Rose (Ben Stiller) and Nancy Kendricks (Drew Barrymore) are looking for a perfect place to live, and they find an apartment in Brooklyn, however they find they'll be sharing the property with Mrs.
Connelly (Mrs. Connelly), an elderly Irish lady who lives in a flat upstairs. Alex and Nancy don't think this'll be a problem, but once they move in, they find that she watches her TV at full volume at night and she has brass band recitals too, plus she puts on Alex to do little jobs, when Alex is trying to write a novel.
Alex and Nancy eventually decide to try and kill Mrs. Connelly, but that proves to be near-impossible. If this had been made by Ealing in the 1950's, you would have had a masterpiece on your hands, but something is lost in this film, whether something got lost in translation between script and screen, something is off kilter.
The tone of this one is all over the place, and DeVito can't get it right despite good intentions.
This review of Duplex (2003) was written by Stuart K on 30 Apr 2014.
Duplex has generally received mixed reviews.
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