Don Champagne (Patrick Wilson) seems to have it all. He has
wonderful children, a business that is booming, an attractive wife and a
gorgeous home. Then again perhaps this ideal life is too perfect. Everything
runs on a schedule, all planned out with preciseness by his perfectionist wife
Mona (Katherine Heigl). Even their love life is planned out to the precise day
and time.
All of that changes when Don hires a hot young salesgirl
named Dusty (Jordana Brewster). Soon he begins having an affair with Dusty
that’s filled with little more than lust fueled moments behind closed doors.
When Dusty informs him that she’s now pregnant, Don finds himself in over his
head. As if most of us didn’t see that coming far in advance.
In reality Dusty isn’t pregnant at all. Instead this is a
scam she’s set up to make money off of Don in an attempt to get away from her
abusive boyfriend and his partner, both of who set her up to do this job. What
none of them counted on was dealing with Mona.
After discovering what has been going on Mona does what
every perfectionist housewife does. She tells Don that he has to kill Dusty.
The insecure and backboneless Don has no clue how to accomplish this so Mona
has to help, giving him a drug filled bottle of champagne to have Dusty drink
so that she’ll be unconscious when it all happens.
In what becomes a comedy of errors the whole thing doesn’t
quite turn out as planned and the folks who should be considered the good guys
take on the role of bad as the film progresses. No doubt a dark comedy from
start to finish the movie has its moments but on the whole is not likely to be
one of the more memorable films you’ll ever witness. There are laughs at
various moments but not enough to make this a stand out comedy. It makes it
easy to see why this one went straight to video.
Wilson does a fine job as Don here as does Heigl in the role
of Mona. But neither of them turn in what would be considered Oscar worthy
performances. Perhaps that’s in part to the roles that they both have. They
seem more cartoonish than realistic which makes their willingness to kill
someone less sinister than it should. Heigl as Mona does a great job as a cold
hearted witch but still, her calmness through all of this makes you wonder just
what she did prior to the events of the film.
In the end this is not a terrible movie but not a great one
either. Mediocre is a word best suited for this one which is sad as it becomes
just another in the long list of films Heigl has starred in that have found
their way to that description. I say sad because honestly I think she’s a much
better actress than the movies she’s been given to date. Here’s hoping that
things change for the better for her. As for Wilson, he’s already moved on to
better films.
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