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Newlyweds Carl Peterson (Matt
Dillon) and Molly Thompson (Kate Hudson) agree to take in their wedding best man, Randolph Dupree (Owen Wilson), to live with them. Their hospitality is not without guilt
because Dupree lost his job for having been away too long attending the couple's Hawaii wedding.
"Two or three days, the most a week," Carl says to Molly who reluctantly agrees to be hospitable to her husband's best friend. Right from the start, Dupree proves boorish and inconsiderate, to say the least, as he feels too at home in the newlyweds' house, appropriates the master bathroom, makes a mess of the place, puts his own voice in the answering machine, and slackens off on his promise to go job hunting so he can find his own place before the week is out. While patiently putting up with Dupree's ill manners all that time, Carl finally puts his foot down when Dupree, entertaining a kinky first date at home, lights up enough candles to burn the living room, causing firemen to descend upon the house, and a commotion in the neighborhood. But when the couple find Dupree sitting it out on a park bench on a rainy night, they take pity and take him back in. Here Dupree begins to change. But things get complicated because Carl conceals the real goings-on in his work at a company owned by real estate tycoon Mr. Thompson (Michael Douglas) who happens to be Molly's manipulative, proprietary father.
The movie plays with the audience's sympathies, projecting
a character (Dupree) that seems to suffer from a mild case of schizophrenia, innocent one moment, manipulative the next, well-meaning in word, menacing in deed. Perhaps the fault is in the story, as the movie itself does not seem to know what to make of Dupree. If it's a comedy, Dupree's flaws are definitely no laughing matter. The comic elements are vulgar, the turn of events contrived. Within the limitations set by the irritating plot, however, the actors, especially Dillon, do a pretty good job of portraying their characters---they become believable persons (such as you might find in your neighborhood) that the viewer can suspend his disbelief (or intelligence) and just wait to see what happens.
What happens is, the movie ends on a positive note by highlighting positive values like family
unity, love, marriage, personal integrity, etc.
The capacity to change from boorish to nice is also emphasized from the time Dupree is rehabilitated. A lot of material in the movie needs to be explained to young audiences, like the ideas of the scheming, possessive Mr. Thompson who tries every possible way to emasculate his son-in-law by insisting that his daughter retain her maiden name, by forcing his son-in-law to add his surname to his, and demanding that Carl undergo vasectomy. The contradictions within Dupree himself---obsessed with a promiscuous woman he beds on the first date yet having the luck to be a popular guru of self-mastery---needs maturity to be understood in the proper light.
(Date Reviewed: 08 September 2006)
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