Date Night
Steve Carell and Tina Fey play a brilliantly matched couple who try to spice up their marriage by switching the venue of their weekly date night from the New Jersey suburbs to a Manhattan restaurant.
Directed by Shawn Levy
(PG-13)
**
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At its best, Date Night is a “lively, often astute piece of marital sociology,” said Mary Pols in Time. The Office’s Steve Carell and 30 Rock’s Tina Fey play a brilliantly matched, fully believable New Jersey couple who attempt to spice up their marriage by switching the venue of their weekly date night from the suburbs to a Manhattan restaurant. When their evening out begins to go awry, however, so does the film. If director Shawn Levy were smart, he would have left the laughs to his stars, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. Instead, he interrupts Carell and Fey with routine action sequences. As Date Night tediously explores “how danger and near-death experiences can reignite a marriage,” the film is left to coast on its stars’ “durability and wiles.” The outtakes, which run during the closing credits, make clear what a natural chemistry these two have, said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. That alone makes Date Night a “reasonably amusing way to pass Saturday night with a significant other.”
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