The Night Before

Rounding out one of those rare 3-movie weekends (seriously Hollywood, could we not have competed something against The 33 last weekend?) is the holiday comedy, The Night Before. 

I've really been enjoying the previews for this one, though they haven't changed much, and I'm usually willing to give a Seth Rogen stoner comedy a shot just on the off chance we get something like This is the End. I was also intrigued that the usual co-stars were no where to be seen. No James Franco. No Jonah Hill. No Danny McBride. They'd been replaced with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie, both of which I found to be interesting, but not wholly unreasonable choices. 

The subject matter with The Night Before is a bit more grim than one might expect. Ethan (Gordon-Levitt) is an orphan when his parents were killed 14 years ago on Christmas Eve. Since then, Isaac (Rogen) and Chris (Mackie) have become his pseudo-family and spend time with him every holiday. The tradition, however, is coming to an end as Chris is now very famous for his football skills and Isaac is having a baby. Since this is their last year together, they decide to go big and make it a crazy night. 

As enjoyable and well meaning as the film is, it just never really comes together on several different levels. At times it feels like each character is in their own separate movie as they're all seeking different things on Christmas. This leads to a pretty evident lack of chemistry among the three leads, despite what their real-life chemistry might be, and a comedy where half the jokes hit and half fall flat. 

"White boy got some moves!...Not you, Seth."

Lizzy Caplan pretty much
makes any movie better.

The film markets Rogen as the titular character, but he's really not as Gordon-Levitt has the most to do here from a character development standpoint.  If we were to look at solely his scenes, it would be a slightly above average rom-com with Lizzy Caplan as his love interest. They have chemistry and the romance as a whole feels decently fleshed out for a film like this so I was going along with it. Rogen on the other hand has the film's hands down best scenes during his drug-fueled rager of a night. Unfortunately the previews ruined most of these great moments, but I was still laughing regardless. A scene where he is tripping in a church (as seen in the trailers) is absolutely hilarious, among a few others. Mackie gets the shortest end of the stick in pretty much every way. His character is an a**hole most of the time and his subplot is abysmal, lacking both laughs, heart, or really any solid purpose. Worst of all is it doesn't really amount to much in the end anyway so you really could have just had a Gordon-Levitt and Rogen film that would have saved about 20 minutes. None of this is Mackie's fault, and more the script/screenplay writers, but for an otherwise "good" comedy, Mackie's character arc drags it down. 

I'd be that excited too if
I just got Legos for Christmas...

What's all a little disappointing is just how hit or miss the comedy becomes. There are a good handful of hearty, belly laughs to be had here. Again, many of them were given away by trailers, but not all. When the jokes aren't hitting though, they are falling big time, which I feel like is a pretty odd sensation for a comedy; either full laughing out loud or not even eliciting a smirk. At times it feels like The Night Before is trying the tested, and often failed, quantity over quality method and it shows, especially with Mackie not exactly being the best in the realm of comedic timing. There are a few cameos throughout -- don't worry I won't spoil them -- which range from fantastic to funny but then derivative to awful. Luckily, with the grim premise mentioned above, the film is able to capture some of the heart and spirit of Christmas. Because Mackie and Gordon-Levitt are capable actors, some of the group's more tender moments are well thought out (again, for this type of film) and I think there was solid group development from start to finish. 

The Night Before ultimately winds up being a disappointment but really only because I fell for a comedy's trailers once again. My rule has always been that if a comedy's trailers don't change much from beginning to end, you've already seen all the funny scenes. You'd be amazed how often that proves itself true. That's virtually the case with this film, though I do admit I had fun watching it on a Sunday morning. 

It's nowhere near the best comedy of the year, or even the best holiday comedy. It's sub par Rogen fare that's a little (just a little) more mature than some of his other films because of the subject matter. Worth your time if you really enjoy stoner comedy as those are the highlights here, but there isn't too much else to offer that you can't find better somewhere else. 

CONS:

• A 50/50 joke hit rate (and I'd say that's being gracious) is not really acceptable
• Trailers give away best parts
• Couple of cameos fall flat, even one that starts off strong
• General lack of chemistry between three leads
• Anthony Mackie's character sucks. So does his entire sub plot

PROS:

• Decent romance between Gordon-Levitt and Kaplan
• Rogen's scenes are the highlights. The church was absolutely hilarious
• Some other jokes are great, including a reoccurring cameo
• Subject matter is a little darker, resulting in some heartfelt scenes that actually work
• Fun Christmas romp

Rath's Review Score: 6/10