‘Why Him?’ is actually quite a bit better than that terrible trailer—with which you’ve doubtless been relentlessly bombarded—makes it seem.
But while it made for a pleasant film-going surprise, cramming a trailer full of a movie’s worst jokes is generally ill-advised as a marketing strategy. This by the numbers holiday comedy, directed by John Hamburg (‘I Love You, Man’), might not find its way into anybody’s Christmas Movie Hall of Fame, but Bryan Cranston and James Franco will almost certainly keep you entertained for roughly two hours of your life.
While the minor characters run the gamut from mildly amusing, to forgettable, to kind of annoying, the film’s leading pair is obviously its highlight. Cranston and Franco are simply two very charismatic actors, and their characters—Ned Fleming, a small business owner and overprotective father, and Laird Mayhew, an Internet millionaire sans filter—complement and play off of each other nicely. Over the course of the film, the two characters are put at odds when Laird asks for Ned’s permission to marry his daughter, Stephanie, who is more of a plot device than a character. Hilarity ensues.
Although the plot feels familiar and predictable, the film’s of sense humor is not as generic and soulless as the trailer suggests it might be. Sure, not all the jokes land, it’s often crude, and on more than one occasion expletives are meant to replace punch lines, but despite all of this, ‘Why Him?’ is actually pretty funny. It is also quirkier than you might expect, thanks to three bizarrely hilarious cameos, and some of James Franco’s (I think) original artwork. Rather than focusing on the tired cliché of the well-meaning boyfriend trying clumsily to impress his girlfriend’s straight-shooting father (John Hamburg co-wrote ‘Meet the Parents’), the film inverts this dynamic by focusing on the father’s perspective; indeed, much of the film’s humor is derived from the old-school Ned trying to understand Laird and his ultra-wealthy, ultra-modern lifestyle. Cranston, whose more recent, dramatic work tends to overshadow his comedic role on ‘Malcolm in the Middle,’ absolutely nails his timing and reactions.
Ultimately, ‘Why Him?’ is an amusing film with the sort of contrived sentimentality that people tend to want from their holiday movies. It is certainly nothing groundbreaking in terms of its comedy, and it raps up a little too neatly at the end—but hey, it made me laugh, and it made me laugh more than I thought it would. What more could I ask for?
Photo courtesy of Facebook
‘Why Him?’ comes to theaters December 23rd.
