Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Jonah Hill, Sam Rockwell, Ari Graynor, Jessica Hecth
Running time: 81 minutes
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: When Noah’s (Hill) girlfriend bribes him into delivering her drugs to a party, he finds himself driving across the city with thee dysfunctional kids he has reluctantly agreed to babysit. But the kids soon cause problems and Noah is suddenly wanted by the police and $10,000 in debt to a psycho drug dealer…
We may be living in the age of the tepid outrageous comedy. Whilst Judd Apatow and Will Ferrell remain consistent in their respective areas of expertise, their contemporaries seem content on repeating the duo’s winning formula to diminishing effect. 2011 saw THE CHANGE-UP, HORRIBLE BOSSES, and 30 MINUTES OR LESS, each of which raised a few laughs but had very little to distinguish them from the next faceces-flinging, phallis-obsessed profanity-fest. And now we have THE SITTER, which, despite the credentials of director David Gordon Green, is the next film to come tumbling off of the assembly line, bouncing its way toward an ‘Unrated’ DVD release. Had the film been produced in the 1980s before we got used to the formula, and starred a pre-AIDS Tom Hanks, it might have been worth the price of a cinema ticket. But it wasn’t and doesn’t and therefore isn’t.
As is usually the case with these Apatow-lite comedies, THE SITTER is not entirely without merit. Jonah Hill (donning the fat suit for the last time) does a fair job in the lead role, and cements his reputation as the king of improv-esque mumblecore. He also has strong support in the shape of Sam Rockwell (watchable as ever), who camps it up as psycho coke dealer Karl. From this point things become less interesting. Though the three kids – with whom Hill’s character is charged – prove less annoying than one might expect (hardly a point of commendation), J.B. Smoove is completely wasted, reduced to flapping around with his genitals on fire.
The real issue is the predictability of it all. Hill’s Noah embarks on a journey we’ve seen countless times by now. He’s irresponsible, he’s sex-obsessed, he’s selfish – but what are the chances these quirky and emotionally distraught children will help him see the error of his ways? These morality tales are ten-a-penny these days, though in this case, it’s strangely muddled – Noah is overly reliant on the use of morally reprehensible behaviour (such as extreme violence) to solve his problems. A similar trait was evident in Ruben Fleischer’s 30 MINUTES OR LESS, and only serves to leave a sour taste in the mouth. It’s hardly surprising that the script contains such flaws: it was written by Alessandro Tanaka and Brian Gatewood, both of whom make their feature film-writing debut here. Let’s assume (and hope) there are better things ahead of them.
For all its faults, THE SITTER occasionally achieves what it sets out to do – titillate. It isn’t as mean-spirited as THE HANGOVER films and is certainly superior to the likes of HALL PASS. Though there are few original gags (and one too many explosives-down-the-toilet ‘jokes’), Jonah Hill’s banter keeps the film afloat, particularly at the point he goes ‘jive’. But we’ve seen Hill do this before (and far better) in SUPERBAD and FUNNY PEOPLE. And David Gordon Green is also capable of much better, as PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and EASTBOUND AND DOWN have proved. With both Hill and Green phoning it in – perhaps uninterested by the confused and formulaic plotting – THE SITTER is unfortunately complacent and derivative, two attributes comedy could do with less of in 2012.
THE SITTER is released in UK cinemas 20th January
