Lost & Found
1/4
Starring: David Spade, Sophie Marceau, Patrick Bruel, Artie Lange
Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sex-Related Humor, Brief Nudity and Language
Unless you're building your film around blacker than black humor, it's necessary to create characters that your audience will sympathize with instead of actively wishing for them to die horrible deaths. That's what happens with "Lost & Found," a would-be romantic comedy that's rotten to the core.
Dylan (Spade) is a restaurateur who has just dumped his stripper girlfriend. Or at least that was the plan, but she beat him to the punch. His business is down in the toilet because they are awaiting a desperately needed loan to expand into the next building, as if his new-found bachelorhood weren't enough. Luck changes for Dylan when a pretty new neighbor moves in downstairs. Her name is Lila DuBois (Marceau), and she's a cellist who has come from France after her fiancee, Rene (Bruel) cheated on her with half the orchestra. It just so happens that Lila's dog, Jack, runs away a lot so Dylan gets an idea: kidnap the dog (or rather, don't immediately take it back after finding him) and soak in the hero's attention when he "finds" him. The trouble is that the dog has stolen a very expensive ring, so Dylan can't give Jack back until he returns the ring.
The film's biggest problem is, believe it or not, Spade. While the script is dumb and pretty nasty, Spade makes Dylan into a thoroughly despicable human being. Dylan's supposed to be a nice guy underneath the sarcasm and snappy one-liners, but we rarely see this. Plus the way he treats the dog borders on animal cruelty (although I have to admit that I did laugh at the scene in the laundry room). It's not that Spade can't handle light drama (he did solid dramatic work in "Tommy Boy"), but either his heart isn't in it or he was badly directed. Whatever the reason, Dylan is a truly awful character. Sophie Marceau, the wonderful actress who can't seem to break into Hollywood, is good, but frankly the role is beneath her considerable talent. She does what she can, but when you're working with a script this awful and acting with David Spade at his worst, there's not much that she can do. The two don't share even a hint of chemistry, so there's that problem too.
The two supporting characters, Rene and Wally (Lange), are even worse. True, we're not supposed to like Rene since he's Dylan's rival, but Bruel's just nasty. Lange, on the other hand, is incredibly irritating. Lange is popular on Howard Stern's radio show, but he can't act. Ironically, the role was originally going to go to David Spade's friend, the late Chris Farley.
Jeff Pollack was behind the films "Above the Rim" and "Booty Call," neither of which I have seen. "Booty Call" is supposedly funny, but then again this movie has David Spade and Sophie Marceau, so that calls into question Pollack's actual talents (or lack thereof). Maybe it's the script (which Spade had a hand in writing) that's the problem. The jokes just aren't funny. Still, it was Pollack who agreed to direct the film based on this script and he mishandled the film in nearly every way. So I suppose some of the blame has to be laid on him.
Either way, this movie should have stayed lost.
Starring: David Spade, Sophie Marceau, Patrick Bruel, Artie Lange
Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sex-Related Humor, Brief Nudity and Language
Unless you're building your film around blacker than black humor, it's necessary to create characters that your audience will sympathize with instead of actively wishing for them to die horrible deaths. That's what happens with "Lost & Found," a would-be romantic comedy that's rotten to the core.
Dylan (Spade) is a restaurateur who has just dumped his stripper girlfriend. Or at least that was the plan, but she beat him to the punch. His business is down in the toilet because they are awaiting a desperately needed loan to expand into the next building, as if his new-found bachelorhood weren't enough. Luck changes for Dylan when a pretty new neighbor moves in downstairs. Her name is Lila DuBois (Marceau), and she's a cellist who has come from France after her fiancee, Rene (Bruel) cheated on her with half the orchestra. It just so happens that Lila's dog, Jack, runs away a lot so Dylan gets an idea: kidnap the dog (or rather, don't immediately take it back after finding him) and soak in the hero's attention when he "finds" him. The trouble is that the dog has stolen a very expensive ring, so Dylan can't give Jack back until he returns the ring.
The film's biggest problem is, believe it or not, Spade. While the script is dumb and pretty nasty, Spade makes Dylan into a thoroughly despicable human being. Dylan's supposed to be a nice guy underneath the sarcasm and snappy one-liners, but we rarely see this. Plus the way he treats the dog borders on animal cruelty (although I have to admit that I did laugh at the scene in the laundry room). It's not that Spade can't handle light drama (he did solid dramatic work in "Tommy Boy"), but either his heart isn't in it or he was badly directed. Whatever the reason, Dylan is a truly awful character. Sophie Marceau, the wonderful actress who can't seem to break into Hollywood, is good, but frankly the role is beneath her considerable talent. She does what she can, but when you're working with a script this awful and acting with David Spade at his worst, there's not much that she can do. The two don't share even a hint of chemistry, so there's that problem too.
The two supporting characters, Rene and Wally (Lange), are even worse. True, we're not supposed to like Rene since he's Dylan's rival, but Bruel's just nasty. Lange, on the other hand, is incredibly irritating. Lange is popular on Howard Stern's radio show, but he can't act. Ironically, the role was originally going to go to David Spade's friend, the late Chris Farley.
Jeff Pollack was behind the films "Above the Rim" and "Booty Call," neither of which I have seen. "Booty Call" is supposedly funny, but then again this movie has David Spade and Sophie Marceau, so that calls into question Pollack's actual talents (or lack thereof). Maybe it's the script (which Spade had a hand in writing) that's the problem. The jokes just aren't funny. Still, it was Pollack who agreed to direct the film based on this script and he mishandled the film in nearly every way. So I suppose some of the blame has to be laid on him.
Either way, this movie should have stayed lost.
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