Monday, April 25, 2011

Barely passable

“Hall Pass” is a sometimes-riotous relationship comedy that ponders the possibilities of officially sanctioned infidelity. Given permission to fool around with other women by their spouses, two best buds (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) explore singlehood again for a few days, and predictably get into all sorts of embarrassing trouble.

The Farrelly Brothers return with their signature gross humor; “Hall Pass” is especially funny during moments that involve poop jokes and similarly juvenile inanities. The relationships themselves have very few likeable qualities, but the immature guys’ wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate) figure in their own dramatic turning points as well.

But comedy-wise, it doesn’t really exploit potentially hilarious scenarios. It would have been great to see how Joy Behar’s character really makes her semi-open marriage work. Kathy Griffin briefly makes an appearance as herself but doesn’t really say anything jaw-dropping or scandalous. Missed opportunities, sadly. It gets repetitive, and the interesting concept just loses its mystique after the first few scenes of boneheaded behavior.

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