Along Came Polly (2004)

A buttoned up newlywed finds his too organized life falling into chaos when he falls in love with an old classmate.

Director:

John Hamburg

Writer:

John Hamburg

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing

1 win & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Stiller	...	Reuben Feffer
Jennifer Aniston	...	Polly Prince
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Sandy Lyle
Debra Messing	...	Lisa Kramer
Alec Baldwin	...	Stan Indursky
Hank Azaria	...	Claude
Bryan Brown	...	Leland Van Lew
Jsu Garcia	...	Javier
Michele Lee	...	Vivian Feffer
Bob Dishy	...	Irving Feffer
Missi Pyle	...	Roxanne
Judah Friedlander	...	Dustin
Kevin Hart	...	Vic
Masi Oka	...	Wonsuk
Kym Whitley	...	Gladys (as Kym E. Whitley)

Storyline

Reuben Feffer thinks he's found the love of his life but on his honeymoon he discovers her cheating on him with a scuba instructor. Reuben travels back home to get his life on track. On a night out with best pal, Sandy Lyle, Reuben discovers an old school friend, Polly Prince. Reuben feels a connection straight away, and tries constantly to get her to like him. But it's not going to be easy for Reuben, especially when he spends his days calculating risks, and when someone unexpected turns up.

---

Plot Keywords:

dance scene | salsa dancing | reference to the breakfast club | australian client | australian man | 

---

Taglines:

For the most cautious man on Earth, life is about to get interesting.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Romance

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, crude humor and some drug references

Details

Official Sites:

UIP France [France] Universal

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

16 January 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Risk

Filming Locations:

611 Place, 611 West Sixth Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$42,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,450,825, 18 January 2004, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$88,097,164

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$171,963,386

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Jersey Films, Loofah Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the beginning of the movie after Lisa and Reuben are wed they fly to the St. Barts airport. The aircraft shown landing at the airport lands on the "displaced thresh-hold" and not on the actual area of the runway designated for landing. Displaced thresh-holds at airports are used for taxiing and allow more room for take off but are not available for aircraft to land on.

---

Goofs

(around 48h 4min) After Reuben's salsa dancing date, Reuben and Sandy are playing basketball a cameraman and boom operator can be seen in the fade away shot on the court.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Reuben Feffer: [practicing] I, Reuben, take you, Lisa... I, Reuben, take YOU, Lisa, to be my lawfully wedded wife. I do. I do.

---

Connections

Referenced in Californication: JFK to LAX (2012)

---

Soundtracks

TINY SPARK
Written by Brendan Benson and Jason Falkner
Performed by Brendan Benson
Courtesy of Startime International Records and V2 Records Ltd.

User Reviews

Safe

The story in this movie revolves around the choice between safety and richness. Because it assumes we are stupid, it has two story lines to hammer the point home, the point that safety is the wrong choice.

And then in the highest of ironies, the picture is fabricated and presented in a way that picks the safe choice in every single element. Every one.

But there is something worth watching here. If you take out the toilet jokes, and the two horrible main characters, and the sappy moral, and the dumb animal joke, you end up with a few great supporting characters: Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, and Missi Pyle could have made a better movie with just their characters.

But the thing that makes this worth watching is Phil Hoffman. He is terrific in most things, but I like him best when he is like this, a weak director and no important function in the story. That means he can be inventive in unconstrained ways. It means we see his energetic projection.

The character he plays is one of those folded ones: an actor playing an actor whose role in the story is in a play, and in a reality TeeVee show of himself, and finally as "proxy" for Ben Stiller while Stiller is off doing the formula date movie ending.

Watch this just for Hoffman. See him perform the role as written: a hasbeen actor who has invented himself as a character. And then see him make that circular by convincing us that the actor is him in real life.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.