Flirting with Disaster

Sometimes, you want a movie to be much better than it actually is. "Flirting with Disaster" is a case in point.

Writer-director David O. Russell's subsequent features, "Three Kings" and "I Heart Huckabees," are gems. "Kings" was an entertaining, engaging action flick that managed to sneak an anti-imperialist message into a Hollywood studio production. "Huckabees" was a zany romp that combined humor and philosophy in ways no one would have thought possible.

On top of that impressive pedigree, "Flirting with Disaster" has a promising premise. Mel (Ben Stiller) has recently become a father, but can't decide what to name his son. Having been adopted, Mel has no knowledge of his real heritage. He sets off with his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette) and a researcher into adoption issues, Tina (Tea Leoni) in search of his birth parents.

In the first act, things roll along at an amusing pace, but the execution starts to falter when the trio meet up with a pair of Michigan cops, Paul (Richard Jenkins) and Tony (Josh Brolin). Rather improbably, the cops join Mel in his search. Meanwhile, Mel is strongly tempted to have an affair with Tina, while Tony looks to take advantage of Mel's inattention to his wife. Things only get more complicated from there, as the group meets up with Mel's birth parents, a pair of hippies who see nothing wrong with making and selling LSD.

Anyone who has seen "Huckabees" knows that Russell has no qualms about putting some rather improbable elements in his films. But while "Huckabees" is whimsical and ludicrous almost from the very beginning, "Disaster" is grounded in a very realistic plot and setting. This makes the rather absurd developments--like the extremely brazen flirtations between Mel and Tina and Nancy and Tony--feel off-kilter, rather than amusing reflections of Russell's ideas.

Moreover, Russell does a poor job of exploring his themes. He has two big ones here, infidelity and identity, which he could have given a thorough and interesting investigation. Instead, Mel's dilemmas are resolved in a few lines of dialogue amidst the ridiculous third act. These thorny issues deserve more than a pat treatment from an imaginative and insightful writer like Russell.