The House Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas. Directed by Andrew Jay Cohen. Rated R. Now playing citywide.
A running joke in The House, the latest disappointing comedy starring former Saturday Night Live cast members, has Scott Johansen (Will Ferrell) unable to perform even the simplest math problems. Apparently, the film's screenwriters, Andrew Jay Cohen (who also directed) and Brendan O'Brien, suffer from the same malady. Their high-concept premise sees Scott and his wife, Kate (Amy Poehler), attempt to raise the money for their daughter's college tuition by opening an underground casino in their basement—a more extended variation on the plan that Tom Cruise’s character employs in Risky Business, except that here it's the respectable parents who are responsible. Thing is, though, the amount of cash they appear to spend on this venture would probably put three kids through college, grad school and a Ph.D. program.
Still, nobody goes to a Hollywood comedy demanding strict realism. The House's true structural flaw—one it shares with most SNL-influenced movies—is that it's long on semi-improvised goofiness and short on actual jokes. Both Ferrell and Poehler tend to fill any vacuum in a script by going broad, and they're egged on here by an extra-hyper Jason Mantzoukas, playing the scumbag neighbor who suggests the casino idea. Things just keep getting more and more outrageous and ludicrous, culminating in literal bouts of comic violence that are more discomfiting than funny. (The House also assumes more familiarity with Martin Scorsese's Casino than the average viewer will likely possess.) Anyone worn down by the escalating yet seemingly random mayhem of Sisters, in which Poehler starred opposite Tina Fey, will experience déjà vu.
It might be easier to overlook the film's sloppiness and deafening volume if it had a stronger satirical point of view. Many school systems are funded via state lottery, tickets for which are bought disproportionately by people who can't afford them; Scott and Kate fleecing their peers to send their daughter to college amounts to the same thing, but The House isn't prepared to make that connection in any depth. Too much to ask of a comedy? Not at all. Risky Business managed to be a lot of fun while simultaneously functioning as a pointed consumerist critique—it has endured because it's sneakily smart.
