Made

Synopsis: When Max, a small-time Californian mob boss, sends childhood friends, Bobby (Jon Favreau) and Ricky (Vince Vaughn), to New York for their first "job", he paves their way into the world of organised crime. Kind of...

When Favreau and Vaughn graced the silver screen as Mikey and Trent in the 1996 film Swingers, they brought to life two amicable losers naive enough to be forgiven any faux pas (of which there were quite a few). Favreau's dog-eared everyman was the perfect foil for Vaughn's haplessly successful lady-killer, resulting in an unlikely winning combo. While the chemistry between the two leads is present in Made, the characters aren't nearly as "nice", and because of this, the film suffers. Favreau unfortunately banks on a repeat Mikey/Trent scenario, but there's only so many times one can see two "grown" men come to blows after an escalating verbal dispute. There's no redeeming innocence here, just an increasingly annoying immaturity.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Sharply shot by Chris Doyle, Made is clearly a well-crafted affair. From a production point of view, it's a marked improvement on Swingers, yet this seems to do little apart from add an uncomfortably glossy veneer, reminiscent of sugarcoated medicine. What exactly is Favreau tricking us into swallowing?

There are darker dealings at work here. No longer flirting with the single's scene, the players of Made unsuccessfully walk that fine line between comedy and drama. The humour too often delves into juvenilia, while any serious aspects of organised crime are neatly swept under the carpet. Bobby and Ricky never really find out what the job is and their presence in New York is completely useless, so the debacle ends up becoming utterly pointless.And yet, the on their return to LA, the film takes a surprisingly substantial turn towards the memorable. It would appear that Favreau, as writer, has a few dramatic aces up his sleeve, which poses the question; Why didn't he play them earlier to give his film a little more weight? Famke Janssen's show-stealing turn as Bobby's stripper girlfriend is unnecessarily short and while Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is effortlessly cool as mobster Ruiz, he seems to be doing little more than reciting his lines.

It's a shame that Made fits so neatly into the pigeonhole of mediocrity. But, on the other hand, it's a remarkable feat that it manages to withstand Vaughn's apparent intention to infuriate the entire viewing public. While his character does an unexplained about-face in the final reel, it's too little too late. Hopefully the next outing will be a tad more palatable, sugarcoating or not.

 

 

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