Along Came Polly
Potential for a great comedy missed due to weak jokes, story.

By Christina Ruffini

OAlong came a slightly funny movie with very little plot and a whole lot of toilet humor.

Despite its impressive cast and amusing storyline, the film was a disjointed attempt at romantic comedy. In it, Ben Stiller plays a slightly neurotic risk analyst whose new bride (Debra Messing) cheats on him with her scuba instructor (Hank Azaria) during their honeymoon. When Stiller’s character, Reuben, returns to his home in the city, he immediately runs into Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) and asks her out on a date — and there begins the fun (or so the previews lead us to believe).

For the next hour and a half, the audience watches as Reuben follows Polly into many uncomfortable situations. She takes him to eat at ethnic restaurants but doesn’t know he has irritable bowel syndrome, takes him salsa dancing when he has two left feet, and makes his perfectly calculated life just completely uncomfortable.

The idea of all this should have had the audience rolling in the aisles. Unfortunately, it had us rolling our eyes instead. The jokes usually involved bodily fluid or a bowel movement, the dialogue was simply predictable, and the addition of a blind ferret into the mix left the whole thing resembling a cross between Ace Ventura and Zoolander.

The worst part the of movie was the countless random characters who had no relevance and made the whole movie very disjointed. People like the scuba instructor, Polly’s waitress friend, a gay salsa dancer, and many others pop up at inopportune times. As if that weren’t enough, Reuben’s parents, boss (an overweight and tired looking Alec Baldwin), client, best friend, and, let us not forget, his estranged wife all get their minute and a half on the screen. They keep the movie from being completely boring but serve no real purpose.

The chemistry between Stiller and Aniston was unconvincing, and the obstacles they must overcome in the name of love are just not that funny. Overall I would give it a rating of “M” for mediocre and at best call it a must rent. Along came Polly, but if you didn’t see her, you aren’t missing much. .