The Dilemma was produced by Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Picture Show but the movie shoud’ve been called the Vince Vaughn Show as it seems that the main role was written just for his style. The movie does center around him but it’s as if The Dilemma is a movie that Vince Vaughn is in while other things happen around him. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing…that’s up to you, but that’s the feeling I got from the beginning. You can expect a lot of the ramblings Vince Vaughn is known for so if you’re a fan of that, you’ll enjoy it. Kevin James also tries the ramblings on for size but that was pretty annoying…he’s good when he does his typical King of Queens character.
Would you tell your best friend that his wife is cheating on him? What if you found out right before a major moment that could change everybody’s life!? That’s The Dilemma. Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) doesn’t know much about marriage but he thinks he’s ready to pop the question to his girlfriend Beth (beautifully played by Jennifer Connelly). While planning out the superbowl of proposals, he catches his best friend’s wife (Winona Ryder who was just evil in this film) cheating with Zip (Channing Tatum). Yes, his name is Zip. AND HE’S HILARIOUS. The movie tries to capture the male’s attention span by throwing in muscle cars and too many sport analogies but then kept going back to the main storyline.
Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Vince Vaughn, and Kevin James in The Dilemma
For me, the movie goes back to the storyline way too much and doesn’t let the comedy grow with it. There are a lot of scenes that will just put you right to sleep. Luckily, however, there are a few funny scenes sprinkled in to keep you up. Most of these are the atypical scenes you don’t generally see in a romantic comedy. But when they snap back to the rom com formula it’s as if the movie hits the reset button and you’re back to a dull state.
Channing Tatum as Zip in The Dilemma
Channing Tatum steals the show with his few scenes. It looks like he had a lot of fun with the role and it’s something you haven’t seen him do before…I thought he was one dimensional but now I think he could maybe be 1.5 dimensional. On the subject of small parts, I’m not typically a fan of Queen Latifah but I learned to love her and her woman hood as Ronny did in the movie. The interactions Vince Vaughn and company had with smaller characters in the movie and the random cut scenes are the real treat. If they just made a moving of compounding lies in this style, it would have been a whole different beast and a lot funnier.
Queen Latifah with Kevin James and Vince Vaughn in The Dilemma
Hopefully this isn’t a trend for 2011, but once again the movie got way better at the very end. And for The Dilemma, I mean very very end…but at least it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The Dilemma is going to hit and miss with a lot of people which means its perfectly mediocre and belongs on American movie screens! That’s what we want, right!? Pay your ten bucks if you want to see it, skip it if you don’t care…I’m sure you’ve already made your mind up but if you’re on the fence…you’d still be on it at the end of the credits.
Tags: Channing Tatum, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin James, Queen Latifah, The Dilemma, Vince Vaughn, Winona Ryder
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
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