Failure to Launch

Directed by Tom Dey, Failure to Launch follows Matthew McConaughey’s Tripp as he falls for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Paula but eventually discovers that she was hired by his parents (Terry Bradshaw’s Al and Kathy Bates’ Sue) to convince him to move out. It’s an admittedly unique premise that is, by and large, employed to hopelessly underwhelming and palpably forgettable effect by Dey, as the filmmaker, armed with Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember’s screenplay, delivers a meandering, erratically-paced endeavor that suffers from a lack of three-dimensional characters and compelling scenarios – with the former especially disappointing given the charming work by leads McConaughey and Parker. (And this is to say nothing of the agreeable efforts of familiar costars like Bradley Cooper, Zooey Deschanel, and Justin Bartha.) The pervasively lackluster atmosphere paves the way for an arms-length midsection that’s rarely, if ever, as engaging or laugh-out-loud funny as Dey has obviously intended, although, to be fair, Failure to Launch‘s brisk pace and relatively brief running time ensures that it remains almost watchable from start to finish – with the end result a middle-of-the-road, by-the-book romcom that seems unlikely to appeal to even the genre’s most ardent devotees.

** out of ****