empty nest syndrome would be a blessing for the just-married parents in Step Brothers. Their spoiled-rotten sons scream when they aren't sulking, making every waking moment calamitous.
If only the "boys" would act their ages (39 and 40) rather then their shoe sizes.
That's the joke — indeed, the only one — in Step Brothers, an aggressively crude comedy that reunites Talladega Nights lunatics Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. There is nothing these two won't do for laughs, feeding off each other with manic chemistry. Their mutual joy in finding someone else on the same out-there wavelength is obvious.
Ferrell, Reilly and director/co-writer Adam McKay have such a wonderful time cracking up each other that they sometimes forget the audience is eavesdropping. Step Brothers beats its comedy into our submission, then keeps slamming the same silly gags past the point of laughter. Any comedy daring to stretch nearly two hours requires more variety.
Ferrell plays Brennan Huff, whose mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen), has created a monster of arrested development. Brennan is prone to petulant fits and pathologically adverse to employment. Nancy falls in love at first sight with Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins), who confesses that his son Dale (Reilly) is also a rude slacker, turning her on and leading to marriage and an immediately dysfunctional household.
The ensuing conflicts are rooted in the adolescent psychology of The Brady Bunch, in which sudden stepsiblings compete for attention and status. But those were children, who could be expected to behave badly, and they didn't pull pranks like Brennan's rubbing his private parts on Dale's cherished drum kit — or like attempted murder. Not to mention that Alice, the housekeeper, would run out of soap from washing out the dirty mouths of these two.
McKay and Ferrell's screenplay uses profanity like punctuation, a comedic shortcut that gets tiring before Step Brothers decides to switch gears, making Brennan and Dale buddies with a common enemy: Brennan's younger, obnoxiously successful brother Derek (Adam Scott). Of course, these overgrown babies will be shocked into a life change. But can they truly be happy leading responsible, productive lives?
Come on, you know that answer. Step Brothers loses steam after the 90-minute mark as Ferrell and Reilly confirm it. But something subversive happens along the way that seriously stunned me, concerning fine wine, high society graces and opera. In Step Brothers' lewd, twisted scheme of things, nothing is more audacious than class.
Steve Persall can be reached at persall@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8365. Read his blog, Reeling in the Years, at blogs. tampabay.com/movies.
>> REVIEW
Step Brothers
Grade: B-
Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn
Screenplay: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay
Rating: R; pervasive crude and sexual language and humor
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