Dilemma an unfunny lie

When faced with the question of whether to see Vince Vaughn’s movies, always pose this question first: how important is my time and money?

If neither strikes you as particularly precious then by all means feel free to roll on into his newest jabber-fest called The Dilemma. Here, he plays Ronny Valentine, a guy faced with a precarious situation. He just saw his best friend Nick Brannen’s (Kevin James) wife Geneva (Winona Ryder) kissing another guy. Should he tell Nick about it?

Well, yeah he should. It’s a no-brainer. Best friends are people who care deeply about each other and they should always tell the truth, no matter how hard or painful it is.

But nothing is this simple in reel life. There’s the sticky matter of the technological prototype that Nick is working on for a big automotive contract. If he loses his concentration his ulcer will burst and the proposal will go kaput.

So Ronny keeps the secret and starts lying to his friend, thus taking a bad situation and turning up the heat on it. One lie leads to another and before he knows it, people start thinking he’s gone off his rocker and become a gambling addict again.

Oh what tangled and twisted webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. This whole movie is a lie.

I was at first under the impression that The Dilemma was meant to be a comedy, what with two huge goofballs as leads. Not true. Sadly, lying and cheating are not really apt fodder for humour. It’s serious business when you take your friends’ hearts in your hands. A betrayal of trust is no laughing matter, regardless of how clownish the betrayer is.

Still, James and Vaughn have pretty decent chemistry together but this film just went on forever. Director Ron Howard appears to have forgotten the all-important lesson from The Da Vinci Code — remember your audience. Pretend you’re one of the crowd from time to time and see how bored they all are.

Two hours is too long for what could easily be accomplished in 90 minutes. It probably would have been better, too. I don’t need to hear Vaughn talk any more than he has to and I sure don’t need to see James’ convulsive dancing.