Three's a Crowd
Count me among the many who just don't understand the appeal of the brothers Wilson. While I've almost uniformly enjoyed every movie I've seen either Luke or Owen in, I consider them opportunists. Each time around, they've found themselves surrounded by better, funnier actors, and their job is to poke their head into the plot every so often and insert a decent joke. Owen's had some decent success with Zoolander (featuring a much funnier Ben Stiller) and Wedding Crashers (sharing time with the hilarious Vince Vaughn), and Luke scored big in Old School (thanks to Vaughn and Will Ferrell). Maybe the best work done by the brothers is in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums; in fact, it's the only movie in which they are both what I'd consider funny. The real test for one Wilson's skill comes in You, Me and Dupree, in which Owen shoulders the brunt of the comedic load, with straight man Matt Dillon and vanilla-ice-cream-in-a-sugar-cone Kate Hudson, who is known more for her looks than her laughs.

Wilson is the Dupree in the title. He's the slacker buddy we all had in high school or college, the one who just couldn't get it together. When skipping work for a week to be the best man at his friend Carl's (Dillon) wedding gets Dupree fired, he's forced to beg for shelter in the newlywed love den of Carl and his bride, Molly. In the traditional sitcom plot outline, here's the part where you say "hilarity ensues."

Except it doesn't, really. Dupree is an overbearing house guest, sleeping in the buff and hanging ties on the front door to let his friends know that he has a lady friend inside. But that's the breadth of the annoying things that Dupree does to apparently wear out his welcome. Yes, he adds HBO to Carl's cable package without asking, but in the next scene, you see Carl watching "The Sopranos" and ignoring his wife. Sure, he sets the living room ablaze while setting the mood for a date with some candles, but he cleans it up. Dupree is set up to be the foil to Carl and Molly's relationship, but the fact of the matter is that he's not, well, dumb enough. Someone like Ferrell's Frank in Old School would really mess things up for the newly minted marriage, but Dupree doesn't seem like that much of a screwball. Sure, he makes bad judgments now and again, but he knows better, and finds ways to balance the bad with the good. Wilson plays the role well, bringing equal parts from his characters in Tenenbaums and Wedding Crashers to find a goofy but lovable Dupree.

The real villain in the movie is the combination of Carl and his father-in-law (Michael Douglas), who together seem like Adam Sandler's character in Click. Mr. Thompson pushes Carl to succeed in the family business, and Carl folds under the pressure, putting more focus on work than his wife. Carl turns into the jerk that Dupree is supposed to be in this scenario; the difference is that Wilson could pull it off, but Matt Dillon certainly can't. The in-law relationship is a graveyard for comedy in this case, as Dillon finds more comedic possibilities with Wilson but is not paired with him enough, and Douglas seems completely out of place playing a knock-off of Jack Byrnes from Meet the Parents, without that threatening vibe.

Written by first-time scribe Mike LeSieur and directed by the Russo brothers, whose greatest success was a cup of coffee with "Arrested Development," Dupree starts and stops more than the 1982 Ford Festiva that used to sit idle outside my house. Seth Rogen is slightly miscast but criminally underused as Carl and Dupree's friend Neil, and scenes between Carl, Dupree, and some neighborhood kids aren't played up for all the comedy that they could hold. Perhaps the movie is stymied by its PG-13 rating, perhaps it's that Wilson is better off hanging in the shadows of funnier men. The fact is that, while it's a solid effort, You, Me and Dupree is decidedly mediocre.

Rating: * * 1/2 of 5

Update: I suddenly feel like Dennis the Menace, having wrongfully slighted Luke and Owen Wilson in my review above. I am one of the few who truly appreciate the Wilson brothers, especially for their roles in the films mentioned. I think when I was collecting my thoughts I was arguing the opposite position in my head, and it's what wound up on...um...paper. Thanks to Beth for pointing out my error. I'm a big fan of Luke and Owen, most especially for their part in Wes Anderson's career. Why I said I wasn't, I'll never know...guess I was having a confusing morning. Point stands, though. This was a chance for a Wilson brother to take the ball and run with it, but because of the writing and directing, he fumbled.