Conventional ‘Due Date’ Drives Home Lots of Laughs

Zach Galifianakis may just be the most entertaining buffoon in Hollywood. In his second collaboration with “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips, Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. team up in “Due Date” and make for one of the funnier, more memorable odd couples in recent years. The film is a fairly standard road movie, but the chemistry between the two completely opposite stars overcomes the familiar story to deliver a hilarious ride.

Downey Jr. plays Peter Highman, a stressed-out architect about to fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles so he can make it home to his wife (Michelle Monaghan) for the birth of their first child. At the airport, he encounters bumbling idiot and aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis), who happens to sit right behind him on the plane. After Ethan starts talking about bombs, terrorists and cell phones to Peter, he gets them both kicked off the flight and put squarely on the no-fly list.

With his wallet and luggage stuck on the plane, Peter finds himself with no options but to accept a ride from Ethan for a cross country drive to LA. If it wasn’t bad enough that Peter had to spend three days in a car with the most annoying person he’s ever met, things start to spiral out of control almost immediately as Ethan leaves a wake of destruction in his path due to his social ineptitude.

Trouble progresses from bad to worse as one mishap occurs after another: Ethan spends all their money on medical marijuana, Peter gets beat up by a cripple and Ethan falls asleep at the wheel and totals their car. Even worse, Ethan gets Peter arrested and accidentally shoots him in the leg. Peter’s chances of arriving in LA in time for his child’s birth continue to dwindle as just about everything that can go wrong does.

Writers Alan. R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel and Todd Phillips model the film’s structure off of the 1987 John Hughes classic “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” and the likeness is instantly recognizable. Both movies are about a businessman paired with a blundering idiot as they must drive across the U.S. to make it to their families, but the troublesome fool inadvertently causes problems at every corner. “Due Date” doesn’t measure up to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” but it more than succeeds in providing the kind of madcap humor that studio comedies often lack nowadays.

However, it falters in giving the characters more of an emotional background. Peter slowly warms up to Ethan, but the tender moments in their friendship, such as when Ethan talks about his recently deceased father (whose ashes he carries around in a coffee tin) are too sparse to achieve the level of sympathy they aim for. These segments certainly get the point across, but occasionally they actually slow the pace of the movie until the adventuring starts up again.

Thankfully, Galifianakis and Downey Jr. work so well together that such problems are only a minor speed bump in their wild journey. Phillips utilizes a variety of visual gags between the two of them that always elicit a big laugh, and for the most part he keeps the jokes flowing very steadily, waiting for just the right moment to unleash an uproarious surprise. If only the trailers hadn’t spoiled many of these scenes, they would’ve been even more comical.

While Ethan is almost the same character as Alan from “The Hangover,” just quirky in different ways, the similar antics don’t get old. Maintaining nearly the same heights of hilarity here, Galifianakis treats exceedingly odd and stupid behavior as fully normal, to great comedic effect. Last month, Galifianakis expanded his range by displaying his dramatic acting skill in “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” but “Due Date” shows him at what he does best.

Casting Downey Jr. across from Galifiankis was a stroke of genius, as the two complement each other’s acting style wonderfully. The suave Downey Jr. often verbally attacks the bearded, teddy bear-like Galifianakis with his quick-witted, lively outbursts, and Galifianakis reacts completely oblivious to the matter at hand or like a little child. The result is a match made in comedy heaven.

“Due Date” doesn’t quite live up to the expectations attached with being Phillips’s follow-up to “The Hangover,” and it doesn’t feel nearly as unique and original either. In reality, the film is really just a raucous pit stop between “The Hangover” and it’s sequel, but the best comedic pairing of the year makes this a trip that’s definitely worth taking.

Three out of Four Stars