This is a film that I winced at every time I saw its trailer. There was nothing funny about it at all and I initially thought it was a HUGE mistake on the part of DeNiro and Stiller to do a film like this. I had NO intention of seeing what looked to me like a one-joke, sophomoric film aimed at people in their teens and 20s, at the exclusion of the rest of us old fogies.
So what happened?
Opening week, good word of mouth, great reviews...
So the next weekend, I went in and found myself howling out loud, doubled over at how crazy and deliriously funny this picture was.
The thing you have to remember is that trailers and ads usually give away most of the best scenes and are solely responsible for getting people off their rears and into their cars and into their seats at the theater. A marketer's job is to make a bad film into a winner on opening weekend, at whatever cost. This is why so many bad films come up big at the box office on opening day and then peeter out in a couple of weeks. To make matters worse, I was unimpressed with the ads and trailers to "Meet the Parents." I hated the whole ad campaign as much as those dumb commercials on TV by an unnamed hamburger chain.
But while watching "Meet the Parents," the context of these scenes were fleshed out and the result was equal parts nonsense and intelligence. It made the film a first class winner, the funniest picture of the year.
Please note that I PAY to see more than 50 films a year, and I don't do it for a living. Seeing movies in a theater are a joy, and to me, time is more important than money. "Meet the Parents" lowered my expectations going in and it came out a winner, big time. It's on my list of the top ten pictures released in 2000.
I was amazed at how the story piled on layer after layer of wild situations; it was like watching one of those great screwball romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. The best thing about "Meet the Parents" is that the material is not, as one favorable critic put it, "dumbed down" despite its premise. You FEEL for Stiller's predicaments and his frustration as things get worse. And when it does, it doesn't make you feel exasperated, impatient or frustrated. It's hilarious. You also FEEL for DeNiro's suspicions as an overly protective father who borders on being chillingly insane. My favorite scenes are the "crying poem recital," the "drag race" (won't say anything more about those, see them yourself!) and the stuff going on at the airport.
So the trailers had me fooled.
Reflecting back, there were two keys to this film's success.
The first key is the execution of each scene. You might not be impressed when someone tries to explain the film to you, but when you see it on the big screen, you see how there is a logical progression to the insanity that develops in "Meet the Parents." The insanity, it's hard to explain, makes sense when it plays out, and it doesn't take any marvelous or expensive special effects to "push" the comedy at all. It's played straight and that's what makes "Meet the Parents" funny.
The second key to the success of "Meet the Parents" is the most important...
Ben Stiller is so damned perfect for this role.
Despite the sheer nuttiness of this film and the horrible situations he gets thrown in, Stiller's innate intelligence comes through. Despite what happens, he's not an idiot. His reactions are priceless and he doesn't play the role as a dufus. He's a guy with common sense who desperately wants acceptance by DeNiro. That's why you root for him. He's not overly attractive in any conventional way -- but his charisma as an actor in this role shines because he does what he does best -- and that is to play each scene like a smart guy who can't believe the things that can go wrong IN SPITE of the well thought out, meticulous planning and foresight that any smart person would do, and he demonstrates as much to the audience when he goes through the motions to try to please his fiancee's family in a big, big way. When he fails, he can't believe it. And neither do we.
"Meet the Parents" is wall-to-wall fun, the most pleasant movie-going surprise of 2000. And the ending is wonderful. The last scene before the credits is practically given away in the trailer (again, I won't mention it), but where they put it in the film is priceless...
Get it!