I Don’t Understand You: Maybe Something Got Lost in Translation?
By Chris Knight
Rating: C-
Woe betide the movie that writes its own moniker. I can still remember being disappointed, 25 years ago, that Gone in 60 Seconds stayed in wide release for more than six weeks. Imagine the headlines if the studio had pulled it after its opening weekend!
Thus it is with mixed emotions that I am forced to tell the new comedy I Don’t Understand You: I don’t understand you.
Sure, the premise is simple enough. Young couple Dom and Cole (Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells, crafting utterly believable chemistry) are hoping to adopt a soon-to-be-delivered baby from Candace (Amanda Seyfried).
As they struggle with the trepidation of incipient parenthood, they also decide to take a trip to Italy while they’re still child-free. Shenanigans, as the saying goes, ensue.
OK, shenanigans might be a bit of an understatement.
A family friend sets the couple up with a sumptuous night out at the farmhouse/restaurant of an elderly famous chef (Nunzia Schiano). But they get lost on the way and are rescued by a homophobic hunter who speaks no English. Neither does their meal provider, once they find her. Misunderstandings are on the menu.
It has the potential to be a cracking good comedy, and the trailer suggests as much. But in the end, all this proves is that you can distill two minutes of hilarity from 96 of meh.
The feature-length version spends far too much time setting up Nick and Dom’s relationship and adoptive situation (which isn’t that complicated) before getting to the meat of the story, in which things go wildly off the rails and misunderstandings snowball into misapprehension, mayhem — and murder.
The film has its funny moments, but writers and directors David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano — a real-life couple with their own adopted son — can’t maintain a consistent tone. Are Dom and Cole stereotypical clueless Americans, or potential killers who just haven’t met the right victim?
A sudden swerve in their motivations late in the film had me wondering whether I should even be rooting for them. And the ending felt oddly unplanned, merely tacked on.
I can comprehend the desire to make a film like this one, but I don’t get how it turned out.
CLICK HERE to see Bonnie Laufer’s interview with Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells. CLICK HERE for Bonnie’s interview with writer/directors David Joseph Craig & Brian Crano.
I Don’t Understand You. Directed by David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano. Starring Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, and Nunzia Schiano. In theatres June 6.