Step Brothers

I've personally had my fill of White-American actors constantly making millions upon millions of dollars at the box-office with infantile humor.  Jerry Lewis, Jim Carrey and now Will Ferrell are successful because audiences eat up their man-child behavior.  Producer Judd Apatow is putting out a series of films featuring a cast of no-longer-to-be-unknowns, yet he's actually pretty good at it.  Ferrell and writer/director Adam McKay didn't quite get it right with their previous collaborations, the Apatow productions "Anchorman" and "Talledega Nights", but they managed to strike a chord within me with their latest "Step Brothers".  Something tells me the participation of 'Talledega Nights' co-star John C. Reilly may have something to do with it.  Ferrell's best moments in that film where when he played off Reilly, because not only did these two guys play dumb, but they managed to look smart doing it.

There's something about 'Step Brothers' that reaches out to almost every male. We all have a little bit of a man-child within us; that part that wants to regress back to a time when we had no responsibilities or faced life-shaping consequences.  As Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, Ferrell and Reilly have not only failed to leave the nest, they still maintain an adolescent mentality.  All of that is about to change when Brennan's mother Nancy (Mary Steenbergen) and Dale's father Robert (Richard Jenkins) meet at a medical conference, fall in love and quickly marry.  When Brennan and Nancy move into Richard and Dale's home, that's when the problems begin.

The newlyweds aren't too comfortable both having 40-year-old unemployed sons still living at home, but they hope the formation of their new family will inspire them.  Nothing could be farther from the truth as Brennan and Dale not only feud with one another, but nearly destroy the house in the process. Richard, hoping for a speedy retirement so that he and Nancy can sail the world on his yacht, delivers an ultimatum to the "boys' that they must find employment within a month.  The situation takes a turn after a family dinner, when Brennan witnesses Dale stand up to his younger brother Derek (Adam Scott) , a successful businessman who is actually more than a bit of an a**hole.  Not only does Dale discover he and Brennan have a lot in common and can maybe be friends, but Derek's wife Alice (Kathryn Hahn) is lustfully pursuing him after hearing he punched her husband in the face.

'Step Brothers' takes a traditional and predictable path, but following Ferrell and Reilly and their antics is so much fun.  Their humor is at first much of a rivalry, with each committing one juvenile act against the other, culminating in Ferrell rubbing his hairy testicle sac on Reilly's prized drum set.  When the two of them bond, they function as one big dumb organism rather than two stupid individuals.  They ruin every single job interview that Richard sets them up with by dressing in tuxedos, interviewing their interviewer or even passing gas on one occasion.  Then there are the local bullies which Dale fears to encounter if he and Dale take a particular route home.  Hilarity ensues not only when these bullies turn out to be a posse of foul mouthed kids, but force Brennan to lick a pile of white dog crap.

Though much of the humor comes from  Ferrell and Reilly's infantile behavior, there is more hilarity to be found in the film starting with Jenkin's and Steenbergen's exasperated reactions.  There's also Hahn as the psychologically abused wife who sees Dale as an escape from a boring marriage and lustfully jumps his bones whenever she can.  I almost had to be hospitalized from laughter when she confesses that she'd like to roll him up in a ball and stick him in her privates knowing whatever itch she felt was the tingling sensation of his curly hair.

Rather than just show two stay at home loser 40-year-olds who wear 80's t-shirts and refuse to grow up, McKay, Ferrell and Reilly's story shines some light on Derek and his corporate buddies, many of which who despite their successes are more crass and juvenile than Brennan and Dale could ever be.

There is a man-child screaming to be released within every male, even if it is for a little while.  'Step Brothers' gives them the chance to do that by not only laughing at Brennan and Dale's antics, but identifying with their fear of failure as well.  In Brennan's case, his fear is addressed when Dale persuades him to give a rendition of Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About" and conquered when he performs (rather perfectly) Andre Bocelli's "Por Ti Volare" in front of an audience complete with extended drum solo.  The film is by no means a perfect comedy, but it hits home closer than many of the films this summer.