Despite a cast of big Hollywood names, who have all had their fair share of quality work, directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s (both of The Kiss) You, Me and Dupree is a complete disaster. From start to finish the jokes are tedious, the plot wanders aimlessly; even the usually amusing Owen Wilson (Starsky & Hutch) can’t save this from being a train wreck.
So let’s start with the story. With the opening premise we knew this probably wouldn’t get an Oscar nomination. Newlyweds Molly (Kate Hudson, Raising Helen) and Carl (Matt Dillon, Crash) are looking forward to sharing their lives together when Carl’s best man, Dupree (Wilson), suddenly finds himself jobless and homeless. Reluctantly, Molly and Carl invite Dupree to live on their couch temporarily, but find that his presence is far more than an inconvenience. In this case, three is a far bigger problem than just being a crowd.
Nevertheless, we had still expected some lightweight, if a little predictable, comedic action that wasn’t too taxing or complicated but still reasonably entertaining. We were wrong. You, Me and Dupree has a plot that seems to go nowhere, which we had expected, but the monotony isn’t once broken by any comic relief. The jokes just aren’t funny in any way, shape or form. The characterization of Dupree as a likeable hopeless romantic doesn’t work because he’s not extremely dislikeable enough to be funny or likeable enough to be, well, likeable.
There’s nothing to warm to in this flop of a flick, instead, we just found ourselves wishing the boredom would come to an end. The usually reliable cast doesn’t make one iota of difference: Wilson doesn’t seem to know what to make of Dupree (so he makes a mess instead) and the normally likeable Hudson does a sudden back flip from being the nagging wife to smiling so much she looks like a hyena.
You, Me and Dupree should have gone straight to DVD, and even then, we still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.