Some filmmakers can't help themselves from going back to the same story over and over again. This is pretty common actually, in one form or another. Wes Anderson has that visual style. Woody Allen is obsessed with death and constantly has a neurotic male lead. Judd Apatow has his man-children. Steven Soderbergh can't stop making heist films. For Joe Hamburg, it's the odd couple. The story of Why Him? mirrors Meet the Parents strongly, only with the roles switch so that Bryan Cranston is the Ben Stiller character. The free spirited Polly in Along Came Polly is to James Franco's Laird in Why Him? as Ben Stiller's Reuben is to Cranston's Ned. Cranston and Franco's dynamic isn't that far from Paul Rudd and Jason Segel's in I Love You, Man.
So, watching Why Him? was sort of a "greatest hits" of Joe Hamburg's career as a writer and director. The problem is that it pulled from most of the hits I'd rather skip. A lot of Why Him? relies on escalating lies and comedy of discomfort, which I only like when done exceptionally well. I appreciate the idea of Cranston trying to flex some of those Malcolm in the Middle muscles again, but the movie doesn't take advantage of what he does best in comedy. He's best as someone about to have a mental breakdown or as an unapologetic sleaze. Why Him? makes him into more of a straight man and it doesn't work. Franco's character simply can't exist in the real world. I get that that is the joke of the whole movie. The problem comes later on when I'm supposed to start seeing him as a real person. They can't have it both ways. He's either a cartoon or a man. He can't be both. I had a similar problem with the handling of Zoey Deutch's character. She's treated like an object to be fought over for the whole movie, then gets a speech about how she's not an object to be fought over. It's a shame the screenplay couldn't've taken it's own advice and actually built a character for her.
Most of what I liked about the movie was on the periphery. Megan Mullally really commits to everything she's given. Zack Pearlman got more laughs out of me as Cranston's "tech expert" than I can justify. I enjoyed the transformation of Cranston's son over the movie that doesn't get directly pointed out. Kaley Cuoco as the voice of the computer got some easy laughs as well, even though it's one of those bits that the movie was a little too proud of. It's just that a lot of the humor of the movie isn't on my wavelength. The Keegan-Michael Key character was a complete dud for me. And, I prefer my toilet humor to be a lot less literal.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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