Duplex (2003)

Directed by Danny DeVito. Starring Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Eileen Essell, Harvey Fierstein, Robert Wisdom, Justin Theroux, James Remar, Wallace Shawn, Swoosie Kurtz, Maya Rudolph. [PG-13]

Happy couple (Stiller, Barrymore) purchases a seemingly-perfect duplex with just one little catch: the rent-controlled resident of the second apartment is a wicked Irish crone (Essell) that will get so deep under their skin that they’ll begin fantasizing about bumping off the old broad. Broad black comedy should have succeeded in director DeVito’s wheelhouse, but he doesn’t have much material to work with (pales in comparison to his similar but far-more-mischievous Throw Momma from the Train). Stiller and Barrymore both lean into their comfortable personas of managing embarrassment and exasperation, and they’re ill-served by the limited comic invention in the scenarios. Trouble is, it’s just not that funny, inspiring restless anxiety instead of macabre laughter; Essell is so good at masking her malevolence in the veneer of doddering sweetness that it actually becomes unnerving. The cop-out ending is bound to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

32/100