The rocket that fizzled out: Failure To Launch

A review of Failure To Launch

Tripp. Demo. Ace. For the tech-unsavvy lot of us: no, those are not terms used in the latest computer language. They are the names of some very unmemorable characters in Failure To Launch. Maybe the film was doomed from the start, with a title like that. Of course, it has every woman’s dream, the gorgeously delectable Matthew McConaughey, and post-Sex & the City, every single urban woman’s favorite role model, Sarah Jessica Parker, but that, my friends, is part of the deception. The filmmakers should have paid particular attention to a line mouthed by Bradley Cooper who plays Demo, a friend of Tripp’s (McConaughey) in the film: ‘Deceptions are poisonous. Like margarine.’

35-year-old Tripp has everything he needs: a good job, a cool car, a set of friends who are always on hand to show him a good time – and his mother to keep his life in order. Tired of their son living at home, Tripp’s parents call upon Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker), an ‘interventionist’, if you will, who has successfully helped many a young homebound man launch himself outside the family nest. Tripp and Paula meet ‘coincidentally’ as per Paula’s plan, and then predictably fall in love, though this is NOT in her plan. His friends discover her initial goal, let him on to it, and there is the inevitable confrontation and then consensus.

Parker and McConaughey don’t really set the screen on fire, and the story is trite. There are a few funny moments but overall, you wouldn’t want to drag yourself to the theater for this.