After sprinting several blocks and sliding as silently as I could into a seat at the back of the movie theater, sweaty, exasperated and exhausted, I was ready to dislike whatever was on the huge, rectangular screen in front of me. I was wrong, however, and it only took a few seconds to start a wave of laughter that lasted throughout the Delivery Man.
Vince Vaughn stars as David Wozniak, an incompetent meat delivery man for his family-run business. His life is already in shambles. He owes $80,000 to a dangerous mob and is always disappointing his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders). To make matters worse, when he arrives at 3 a.m. on her doorstep, she tells him she’s pregnant and quickly states her intentions of raising the child on her own. David turns to his friend Brett (Chris Patt) a father of four, and complains to him about how he thinks that he is ready for fatherhood, right before he discovers that he is, in fact a father – to 533 children. Everyone’s reaction was most accurately summed up by the man sitting behind me who exclaimed, “Damn! That man is screwed.”
Ken Scott directed both the American adaptation Delivery Man and its Canadian predecessor, Starbuck. He did a wonderful job directing, and the movie was full of beautifully shot scenes. Delivery Man did, however, have a plethora of clichéd characters, including a very handsome guitarist who played for money in Central Park, a bartender who was an aspiring actor, and a beautiful girl who caught the attention of many men and invoked the more protective side of David. The story line was simple and David’s problems were all solved in a way that seemed rushed, unoriginal, and too convenient to be believed.
This movie also had a myriad of touching moments, David’s caring side was accentuated during the scenes in which he attempted to connect with his children. In one such scene, David discovered he had a disabled son and spent countless number of hours each week trying to make a connection with him. Each child brings on a new problem where audience sees how David reaches out to a huge variety of different people in a heartfelt and hilarious way.
This light-hearted comedy infused with several tear-jerking moments is a movie that I recommend. Delivery Man is quirky and the comedy is original and genuinely funny. Vince Vaughn plays his quirky character to perfection, the main comedy stemming from the pool of awkwardness David somehow surrounds himself in. While Delivery Man isn’t a movie that has a life lesson that the audience will take away, it does a fantastic job of melding sentiment and comedy into a tasteful movie.
