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In this new movie from the director of the two Austin Powers flicks, that premise is carried to hilarious extremes. Especially because Meet The Parents is deftly cast with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro as comic adversaries.
Stiller, who is so masterful at looking dumbstruck in an absurd situation, pops up as the young man. This role is far more complex and provocative than that stupid guy he played in the tasteless There's Something About Mary.
In the new movie, Stiller plays a male nurse eager to propose to his live-in schoolteacher girlfriend, played by blithe spirit Teri Polo, best known for support roles on TV shows such as Felicity. They make for a very romantic couple.
But first, Stiller has to go on a visit to her parents' lavish house. The mother, Blythe Danner, is flighty and friendly. But the father, De Niro's character, is a total fruitcake.
Aside from being obsessively protective, sneeringly sarcastic and downright suspicious of the motives of any man sniffing around his daughter, De Niro is a retired CIA agent. Which means he will use any means necessary.
The situation is ripe for mayhem. Sure enough, director Jay Roach provides it in abundance, working from a genuinely funny script by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg (from a story by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke).
Usually, that many writing credits on a comedy spells disaster. In this case, there is an excellent balance of subtlety and slapstick, of the sweet and the profane, of gentle and jolting.
The only time the movie strays is in some mildly homophobic material that had a few idiots braying like donkeys at the preview screening earlier this week. The Jewish-Christian jokes are also a little lame. And the name game with Stiller's character -- he's called Greg Focker -- just gets tedious.
Otherwise, the laughs come naturally. There are delicious comic situations: The film skewers incompetent airlines, U.S. covert operations, pot smoking, spoiled cats, etc. Strong character development makes everything believable. That's why the casting of this kind of movie is crucial.
Stiller is a given. This is what he does best. The real treat is watching De Niro in a comedy worthy of his brilliant timing in delivering a line. Not since Midnight Run has the material been so perfectly suited to De Niro's hidden talent to play the fool, the manic gnome with the sparkling eyes.
If De Niro's Mafia comedy Analyze This went for cheap laughs, Meet The Parents develops real depth. That lets the wonky scenes, such as the soon-to-be-legendary polygraph test De Niro administers on Stiller, pack a terrific comic punch.
It is also wickedly funny even to have De Niro play the role at all. He brings baggage to the screen, a string of psychos, deviants, villains and eccentrics in movies from Taxi Driver to GoodFellas, from Raging Bull to Wag The Dog.
When he shows up at the door as the loving father, audiences involuntarily cringe. It sets the table for a banquet of laughs.
(This film is rated PG)