The Dilemma (2011)

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah, and Clint Howard
Grade: C

Never have I seen a movie where the characters are Ball State University graduates.

Summary

In Chicago, over dinner at a restaurant, we see best friends Ronnie Valentine (Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (James) out together with Ronnie’s girlfriend Beth (Connelly) and Nick’s wife Geneva (Ryder). Geneva poses the question of how long it takes to truly get to know someone. Beth notes that you continually get to know someone because they change when they grow, though if you’ve been through hell with someone you get a pretty good idea on how they handle stuff. Her and Ronnie kiss. Nick argues you can know someone within the first ten seconds of seeing them because he fell in love with Geneva in the same manner. Interestingly enough, Ronnie doesn’t think you may ever know someone entirely, and they might surprise you with something new every day. This is because we constantly hear about people cheating and having second families and such.

This conversation over the opening credits may not seem important but really, each of their answers sets up the rest of the story.

Sometime after, Ronnie and Nick attend a car show, and they have a huge pitch since they’re partners in auto design firm “B & V Engine Design”. They see a senior executive for General Motors named Thomas Fern (Chelcie Ross), and Ronnie tells Nick he needs to hug Fern because he’s all about the sentimental stuff now that he’s had a near-death experience. Ronnie goes in first to talk to Fern, reminding him that their company helped Fern with a few ECU modules a few years back. He tries to introduce him to Nick, but Nick is hugging the wrong executive. Ronnie pivots and mentions they have an idea that they can run by Fern since they’re not committed with any companies, and Fern agrees to it. That night at the bar, Ronnie, Nick, Beth, and Geneva are all out together again, and it’s explained that Ronnie did this to Nick purposely because the person Nick was hugging was a direct competitor to Fern, and the pitch was for Dodge. Nick’s mad at Ronnie for the lie, but there’s a good chance he would’ve messed it up if he knew the truth because he overthinks things and gets nervous. Everything is good though because they got the meeting. They dance and have a great time. At one point, they switch partners for a slow dance, and Geneva tells Ronnie that he needs to propose to Beth because time is running out. Later on, Ronnie and Beth are hanging out at their apartment, and Ronnie wonders if Beth wants anything to progress further without saying the word “marriage” explicitly. She says she loves where she’s at with him. If things progressed, she’d still be happy, but it doesn’t seem like a concern at the moment.

Soon after, Ronnie and Nick go to their pitch meeting with Dodge. On the way, Ronnie is noticeably nervous, despite usually being the calm one. Nick is surprised, but Ronnie says he can’t be broke if he’s going to get married. He’s planning on asking Beth next month on her birthday. He got a great deal from this Hasidic guy he met at his Gamblers Anonymous meeting, giving him a $20,000 ring half off. He’ll get this deal on two conditions. One of them is that he’s paying in cash and the other is Nick will help the guy fix his car. An annoyed Nick agrees to it, but he says this will be his gift to the both of them, nothing from the registry.

Despite Nick’s last three prototype bids being rejected, the two are walking into this meeting with confidence. At the meeting, their idea of making stylish muscle cars with electronic motors, but with the aggressive sound and vibrations of what these cool cars are known to have, goes over well. Fern and fellow executive Susan Warner (Latifah) agree to the deal but will only give them $400,000 since they’re taking all the risk. Fern points out that with this deal and a good working relationship, they’re prepared to offer them an “overall deal which means up front money and an option for an exclusive long-term contract” with B & V Design. They agree and are told they’ll be under the supervision of Susan. Susan gives the two props and says that when she was with Ford just five months ago, they were talking about how good the two are at their jobs, with talking being Ronnie’s strong suit and building being Nick’s. After Susan leaves, Nick starts to freak out because he reminds Ronnie, they’re only 75% of the way there on the prototype and he doesn’t think he can deliver. Ronnie is able to calm the situation momentarily, but we know it’s going to be an issue.

Ten days after this meeting, Ronnie sees Beth at her chef job at work. It’s been 16 months and nine days since his last bet, and he feels good. After they kiss, we transition to Ronnie meeting with a worker at a botanical gardens place where he plans on proposing. While there, he sees Geneva kissing another man (Tatum). He then falls into a bunch of poisonous plants after the worker sees him. Along with getting a severe allergic reaction (among other side effects), he’s told he’s banned from the place.

At home, he lies and tells Beth he accidentally touched some street plants after having to get a ball for some fat kids who couldn’t reach it. While he’s acting out this horrible lie, his huge wad of cash (to pay for the ring) falls out and Beth questions why he has it, but he passes it off a payment to his suppliers. At work the next day, Ronnie tries to break the news to Nick about what happened with Geneva, but Nick flips out on Ronnie for not signing off on some loans. Plus, Nick’s ulcer is acting up again. He’s stressed out and it’s bad. He tries to press further, but they’re interrupted by a test of one of the motors. It works for a moment, but it dies. This further enrages an already stressed Nick, and he yells at Ronnie when he tries to talk to him again. After a trip to the bank and discussing a scenario about telling the truth about cheating among friends with complete strangers, Ronnie calls his sister Diane to ask her advice on the Nick situation by disguising it as a Jerry Springer episode. Unfortunately, she mistakes it as Ronnie telling her that her own husband Saul is cheating on her. Ronnie gets back to work, and Nick gives him a chance to talk. Sadly, they’re interrupted by Beth and Geneva who want to take them out to a Chicago Blackhawks game.

At the game, Geneva is constantly texting on her phone and goes and gets some beers, so Ronnie follows her. He tells her privately he saw her and the man at the botanical gardens. She defends herself by saying Nick hasn’t slept with her in over six months, and how every Thursday night, Nick goes to a massage parlor and gets jerked off by a 19-year-old Vietnamese girl. Ronnie doesn’t believe her and gives her the chance to tell Nick, or he will. Geneva convinces Ronnie to not say anything until their job with Dodge is over with because it would destroy Nick otherwise (because of the ulcer and everything). She even promises not to see the man anymore and that she swears she’ll tell Nick herself once it’s all over. Ronnie agrees to this, though the lies continue, and they start taking us in unexpected directions. The stress of trying to keep this to himself while still pulling off this job for Dodge may be too much to handle for Ronnie, especially because he cares so much about his best friend.

Also, Geneva may be more devious than we initially thought, and it complicates things.

My Thoughts:

I wanted to rate The Dilemma much higher because of my known love for Vince Vaughn-centered comedies, but this was disappointing. Here, the goal is to mix a bromance and a cheating scandal, make it funny, but also dark. What we got was a very awkwardly put together movie.

The friendship between Ronnie and Nick, played as well as you would expect from Vaughn and Kevin James, succeeded. However, the cheating scandal didn’t make things nearly as funny or as exciting as the trailer made it out to be. In fact, the film seemed to be marketed more as the comedy the movie should have been. Sure, we may have seen these types of movies before, but they’re proven to work. With a talented cast like this, it would’ve succeeded. What we got instead was a type of film that deviates from this formula to move into darker and more realistic territory but sadly, it’s just not the movie we care to see. Sometimes, the formula works and though you’re not doing anything special, you’re still entertaining.

That’s the whole point of cinema, isn’t it?

It didn’t need the drama that the second half of the film focused on. Once it got serious, it never dug itself out of the hole nearly as much as the film needed. Considering the star-studded cast, this should’ve been so much funnier. I understand the idea was to get a big darker to explore the rougher parts of relationship issues, but I don’t think it was the way to go with a premise and cast like this. I know Vince Vaughn is capable enough to pull off material like this as an actor because we’ve seen it in films like The Break-Up, but the material given here was asking for more broad comedy. With the way things turned out, something wasn’t clicking. Winona Ryder playing the cheater works (I’ve never trusted her ever since Mr. Deeds) and Channing Tatum is amusing enough in a supporting role as Zip, but everything feels uneven. They play with the evilness of Geneva to the point where she seems downright dastardly, but then we get redemption for her towards the end. However, the added bonus of Nick getting jerked off by a young girl at a massage parlor way before she starts cheating makes me think both are in the wrong, especially since he did it first to begin everything. This made me think either a reconciliation was necessary for the couple, or Nick’s thing should’ve been omitted entirely from the movie because not enough was blamed on him for his marriage failing.

Additionally, Ronnie got the worst of the punishment, despite being put in the position he’s in because of his little friend group. I’m not saying Geneva is right in what she’s doing, but it’s more justified than you would think. Nick technically cheated on her first and does it damn near weekly. It made him a lot less likable and everything a lot less funny with the way it’s handled.

Geneva’s right. We don’t know shit about their marriage. Maybe Ronnie should’ve stayed out of it because he got screwed.

Most of the humor that works stems from Vaughn and Channing Tatum. They were great and put there all into making this thing work. The fight and the intervention were two of the best scenes in the film, and it was all them. Other than that, there aren’t many comedic moments worth noting. A lot of good material is given to Queen Latifah, but she completely botches it with her awkward and unfunny delivery. They try to make her character this oddly passionate executive that consistently makes sexual references towards herself to describe how much she likes things, but Latifah wasn’t the “comedic actress” that the role called for. We needed someone crazier to pull it off. I don’t say this often, but this is something Kathryn Hahn would’ve killed had she been considered.

The only thing I found genuinely interesting about the intricacies and moral questions coming from the screenplay was when Ronnie goes back and forth on how to approach Nick with the information of Geneva cheating on him. This leads to the scene in the bank where Ronnie overhears Chicago native strangers talk about how Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose didn’t pass the ball to Joakim Noah when he was wide open and how he may not trust him. Ronnie buts in and turns the conversation into a hypothetical scenario asking if Noah knew Derrick Rose’s girl was cheating on him, should he tell him? To further Ronnie’s struggle, the strangers disagree on whether he should or not. However, they all agree that he shouldn’t if they were playing for the NBA Championship in a Game 7, mirroring Ronnie and Nick’s situation with Dodge. It’s weird because despite how close of friends Ronnie and Nick are, it’s basically decided that this job is too important to tell Nick. It’s an interesting thing to note because everyone thinks Nick should eventually know, but the situation is too important to jeopardize. It’s a funny conversation that showcases how selfish we can be in this scenario, but we also can’t deny how intriguing of a point this. It’s not as easy as just telling someone this information. Context can be crucial to making the decision.

One of the most important moments in the film was after Ronnie’s fight with Zip where he shows up to Beth’s parents’ anniversary party with noticeable wounds on his face. Following his very funny and disastrous toast, Beth talks to him privately and demands to know what’s going on with him. She thinks his gambling addiction has resurfaced because the signs are there, but instead of finally giving in and telling her that Geneva cheated on Nick, he deflects and leaves angrily. I still don’t get this. Why can’t he tell her? The situation doesn’t affect their relationship whatsoever but letting your girlfriend think you relapsed is. This has to be the time he tells her. I understand Beth is friends with Geneva, but it’s not like Beth would get mad at Ronnie for something that had nothing to do with either of them. In fact, there was never a reason to lie to Beth. He could’ve told her when he first saw it at the botanical gardens. I guess he would have to explain why he was at the botanical gardens in the first place, but a master talker like Ronnie could definitely come up with a way to get around the fact that he was thinking about proposing to Beth there. Not a single time did I think during this movie, “Oh no! There’s no way he can tell her!”. Realistically, it would affect her in no way. This movie gave me no reason to think otherwise. If anything, she could’ve help Ronnie in finding a solution. The character is incredibly reasonable, likable, and understanding. Lying to her never felt necessary to make things work.

This may be random, but I would argue that if Nick was played by Owen Wilson, with the exact same screenplay, The Dilemma could’ve been saved. Plus, it would’ve been a hell of a lot funnier. Their chemistry is untouchable. They play off each other incredibly well. I’m not saying that Vaughn and James didn’t play believable friends, but I think Vaughn and Wilson would’ve done it even better in the comedic and emotional departments. Maybe I’m just a little tired of seeing Kevin James play the role of the lovable loser so often, but I’m still going to advocate for another team-up movie with Vaughn and Wilson. I’ve seen Wedding Crashers a hundred times, and I loved The Internship. I’m confident they could’ve fixed The Dilemma. I guarantee this movie would’ve been that much better with a single casting change. Obviously, they could’ve just wrote a better screenplay to fix the movie, but this is much more fun to talk about.

The ending was kind of stupid as well. It was like, “Yeah, your life’s fucked, but you won something cool”.

*End credits*

You’ll know what I mean once you watch it.

The Dilemma has its moments but again, with all this star power and a great director in Ron Howard, I was expecting a “Comedy Film of the Year” type of movie. Vaughn shines per usual and carries the film like he should. Ryder and Tatum are solid, and though Jennifer Connelly isn’t given enough to do, she’s always good as the love interest. With that being said, the film just didn’t work like it should have. Most of the problem stems from the blending of serious and comedic situations and tones, giving us an overall uneven movie. The film could’ve benefitted from shaving off twenty to thirty minutes in the final cut and leaning into the comedic direction harder. It would’ve made things more entertaining and faster paced instead of dragging things out to try and find emotion or depth in places where it’s not at or doesn’t feel right. The dark parts of the movie just changed the vibe, and it didn’t work. If the humor got darker, it may have worked, but it just gets super dramatic in its tone and then switches back to a regular comedy with none of it flowing.

I don’t know. The Dilemma just isn’t as good as it should be. There was still a decent number of funny scenes though and if you like Vince Vaughn, he Vince Vaughn’s it up in classic Vince Vaughn fashion.