Along Came Polly
Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Directed by: John Hamburg
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Debra Messing
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, language, crude humor and some drug references.
Parental Notes: There’s plenty of toilet humor here, but not much else objectionable for the preteen or teen set.
If you have ever wondered what a Jane Austen book would be like if it were adapted by the Farrelly brothers, “Along Came Polly” will come close to providing an answer. There are scenes of charming, life-affirming romance, but they are mingled with extended sequences of painful toilet humor. It’s as though one screenwriter wanted to make a sweet romantic comedy and the other wanted to do a rehash of “There’s Something About Mary.” It’s a shame that these two incredibly different comedic styles are mixed together, because the plot is perfectly suited to either but suffers from the weight of supporting both.
Reuben (Ben Stiller) is a risk assessor for an insurance company who is so passionate about avoiding risk that he can calculate exactly how many people with unclean hands have probably eaten from that bowl of free nuts at the local bar. His fianc