Hall Pass: two and a half stars
Rated: R for coarse language, nudity, and mature subject matter
A recent survey taken by MSNBC.com shows that one in five, or 22 per cent of people in a monogamous relationship have cheated on their current partner. The survey found that most philanderers are usually dissatisfied with their sex life or feel emotionally withdrawn from their partner. When the cheater was caught, more than 80 per cent of the relationships were ended.
I should point out that the percentage of philandering men is greater than women. Guys in committed relationships often share the same fantasy of getting let off the leash by their significant others and basking in a world with bottomless pitchers of beer, mountain high plates of nachos, and an endless line of nubile women who find them irresistible. Hall Pass takes this fantasy from the backs of men’s minds and rolls it out on the silver screen.
We meet two best friends named Rick and Fred (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) who are well married to Maggie and Grace (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate), but cannot stop lusting after beautiful women. Grace and Maggie eventually get fed up with their husbands’ straying eyeballs and issue them both “hall passes,” which are week-long permission slips to be as sexually free as they want to be.
Hall Pass is a film by Bobby and Peter Farrelley, who will forever have the impossible task of living up to their amazingly successful There’s Something About Mary. Mary worked for many reasons, the most notable being Ben Stiller. Stiller has an uncanny ability to make us laugh at his characters embarrassments and not feel guilty about it. Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis are affable; we are meant to sympathize with these guys while they wander the uncharted territory of hot chicks.
‘Til next time! See you at the movies.
