One Night at McCool's 

View Date: May 5th, 2001

Cast :

Written and Directed by: Stephen Sommers

If Quentin Tarantino or Doug Liman had taken a script of a man going through a mid life crisis and crossed it There’s Something About Mary, the result would have been this disaster known as One Night At McCool’s.  The film tries to be innovative in its perspective of showing three different aspects of a relationship with one girl, and her power over them, but the difference between Mary and this one, is that the girl realizes this, and plays them against each other, for her own self serving needs and fulfillment.  This aspect steals away any hope of humor, originality or entertainment that the movies dark nature could have had.  Only a few of the jokes work, including one at the ending, which seemed to be a culmination scene that someone came up with, then built an entire movie around.  The unfunny, and sometimes disturbing sequences do not result in a laughter that we can relate to in a twisted manner, but rather situations that we just shake our head at and wonder how they ever made it past a competent and literate editor.

The story begins in three segments, Matt Dillon finding Michael Douglas in a bingo parlor, Paul Reiser seeking therapy from Reba McEntire, and John Goodman confiding in a reverend, all in regards to their encounters with Jewel (Liv Tyler).  Dillon meets her outside the bar where he works, after she is supposedly dumped by her abusive boyfriend, Reiser, Dillon’s cousin, is an attorney who sees this altercation, but also a bit more to make him curious, and Goodman is the police officer who heads an investigation after Dillon and Tyler off her abusive boyfriend.  This is all in the first 15 minutes, and it careens into further confusion as Dillon conspires to hire Douglas to kill Jewel, while Reiser and Goodman fall deeper for her, in their own unique, but justified and twisted ways.  The story meanders inconsistently between the three supposedly intertwining tales, and as much as I tried to just let my brain go and have fun with it, the lethargic inconsistencies were just too much to deal with, so finally gave up and waited to see how it was all going to conclude, not really caring.

As well as appearing in the film, Douglas also had production duties meaning that he not only approved of the script and story, but also probably had some input into its progression and creation.  I am not sure why I, along with other moviegoers should be the unwitting victim to Douglas’s self indulgent mid life male fantasies.  He drags Reiser, Dillon and Goodman along with him into this abyss of silliness, and it’s a shame, because a potential existed to make a more creative sidekick to Mary, but the script lacks the balance and relatable characters, that existed in that movie. Instead we are given one example of a creative joke, and several unfunny situations which causing cringing and boredom rather than laughter.  Tyler’s ironic turn as the vamp completes her journey from innocence that began in Empire Records as the virginal fan, through Inventing The Abbots and Heavy, and now to this, and she is exploited just a tad less than Angelina Jolie was in Gone in 60 Seconds.

Ultimately, One Night at McCool’s is a flashy but empty attempt to expose and show the darker sides of love, relationships and obsession.  These are emotions that take a delicate touch to deal with, but are also ripe for satire and spoof if the cut is deep enough, as Mary was.  McCools skims the surface of so much, but never goes any further, and thusly never generates any kind of comic energy save one Village People scene near the end, and this is not enough to support the rest of the film.  I enjoy dark comedies, but the light never came on for this one, only a string of bad skits, held together by Liv Tyler, and ultimately doomed by a fear to take that extra step. ($$$ out of $$$$)

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