Fresh off last summer’s success with “The Hangover,” director Todd Phillips’ latest comedic effort, “Due Date,” unfortunately comes up short. His new film, which centers on the journey and unlikely pairing of the high-strung and volatile architect Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr.) and the socially inept but well-meaning aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), lacks both the inspiration and innovation that made “The Hangover” so memorable.
As the title suggests, the crux of the film is for Highman to get from Atlanta to Los Angeles in time to witness the birth of his first child. But of course, it’s not that simple. Tremblay first bumps into Highman (both literally and figuratively) curbside at the airport, and again when the two board the same flight. Confusion and miscommunication ensue, and not even 10 minutes in, both are placed on the No Fly List. With his belongings still on the plane, Highman has no choice but to join Tremblay on a chaotic road trip west in a red Subaru rental, which later becomes a borrowed Range Rover and finally a stolen border patrol truck.
Whereas in Phillips’ previous works the punches keep rolling and the energy is kept high throughout, in “Due Date,” the evolution of the pair’s means of transportation serves as an analog for the development of the plot: occasional high points punctuated by definite lulls. This may just be a pitfall of the road trip movie, as the low points occur mostly in the filler scenes focusing on the two men in the car going between destinations. The one exception, however, is when Tremblay decides to hotbox the Range Rover, and in a cannabis-induced stupor mistakes the “Mexico” sign at the Juarez-El Paso border crossing point for “Texaco.” But even so, the resulting situation relies mostly on racial stereotyping and slapstick for laughs, without bringing anything new to the screen.
For their parts, Downey and Galifianakis make the most of what they were given, which quite frankly is not much. The screenplay, a collaborative effort between Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel and Phillips, generates minimal character depth, and instead, “Due Date” relies heavily on visual cues to let the audience know who’s who. From the moment Highman and Tremblay lay eyes on each other outside the Atlanta airport (with the former giving the latter a scornful glance up and down), we know the two men are polar opposites. Highman rolls up in a black town car wearing a trim suit, Bluetooth earpiece and aviator sunglasses to shield him from the world. Tremblay, on the other hand, is dropped off in a worn Volvo station wagon looking like an overgrown gnome with a bushy beard obscuring half his face and a sizeable beer belly protruding over the waist of a pair of acid-wash jeans, several sizes too small.
No words are needed here to express how strikingly different they are, and in fact, there is little of substance that passes between the two characters. While they form a tenuous bond over their missing fathers (Highman’s left when he was a boy; Tremblay’s is recently deceased), it, like many other promising parts of the movie, is thwarted by hackneyed comedic tropes. We do get some laughs out of Tremblay’s father, whose ashes are kept in a coffee can, but alas, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.
In the end, it feels as though the problem with “Due Date” is simply that it tries too hard to please. Unlike “The Hangover,” which pushed the envelope with its bawdiness and profanity, “Due Date” comes across as predictable, strained and far less original. That’s not to say that it is a complete flop – it does have its funny moments, but you can see all those in the trailer. Take my advice: save your money and watch that instead.