The 2003 movie Old School is the perfect example of something being good news, bad news for someone's career. Up until that point, Vince Vaughn was known for being a dramatic actor. In fact, outside of Swingers- which had comedy tones- most of his early films had him in dramatic roles. Old School broke him into the comedic ranks and he continued down that path with roles in Anchorman, Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers etc. The only time he has really drifted back into drama was for a supporting role in Into the Wild. It's a shame too because many people forget that Vaughn is a pretty effective dramatic actor.
The Dilemna is held together by his performance, especially when the script calls for him to emote in a dramatic sense. Vaughn plays Ronny Valentine who has been best friends with Nick Brennen (Kevin James) since college. They work together as inventors who are developing a motor for hybrid vehicles that make them sound like muscle cars of days gone by. They land a development deal with Dodge and go out to celebrate with their respective others (Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder). Nick and Geneva (Ryder) are married and are doing everything they can to convince Ronny to take the plunge with Beth (Connelly). And Nick is seriously moving closer to the idea of marriage. A day later he sees Geneva making out with another man. He follows them back to the guys house where they have sex and Ronny's world is now in upheaval. Does he tell his friend what he saw? Complicating the decision is that Nick is the brains of their idea and is completely stressed out over the project which could make them billions. Ronny decides to confront Geneva for now and let Nick work his magic.
The situation takes a turn in the scene where Ronny confronts Geneva. Back in college, the two had a one night stand that has never come up in the group. Geneva says that Nick has been cheating on her and if Ronny says anything she will tell Nick that Ronny has been pushing her to rekindle that one night for years now. So the simple question of :If you knew your friend's wife was cheating on him would you tell him, has a little bit more to it. The scene where this comes out is excellent as Ryder has the perfect sad eye quality that sells the scene. That truly has always been one of Ryder's strongest traits. She is a beautiful woman that straddles the line just past "girl next door" looks. When she is asked to cry in a film she gets the doe-eyed look that draws you into her character.
The problem that Ronny has gets deeper with his quest to find evidence to out Geneva. He begins lying about where he has been, and considering he is a recovering gambler, Beth suspects the worst. For Ronny though this is a mission that needs to happen. Nick and Geneva has always been the picture of marital bliss to him. As he has been preparing to get married he has held them up as the standard. If they are falling apart then what does that say about his model?
While that sounds compelling, and really does make for an interesting film at times, it never quite fully clicks together. Few reasons why. First off, the script never is quite sure exactly what it wants to be. It wants to be a laugh-out loud riot at times, and an earnest drama at others. It makes for awkward scene transitions between and within scenes. After the scene where Vaughn confronts Geneva, he walks around town before settling on a park bench by himself. He begins talking out loud to God and asks for guidance. He expresses some concerns about wrecking his buddy's life and laments the power of the knowledge he has. He then closes by saying, "And if you could help us with the Dodge thing that'd be great." He says this is a complete tonal shift that is played for comedy and it ruins the previous 10 minutes of film. Secondly, the Queen Latifah character- she plays an insider at Dodge- is completely superfluous to the plot and she grinds the proceedings to a halt every time she comes on screen.
Everything comes to a head in a scene where Geneva's boyfriend (Channing Tatum) is accidentally invited and all the secrets come out throwing everyone's lives into the blender. It works out in the end but it does so in another violent shift into dramatic land. Again there is a disconnect between reels of film. In fact, it feels like the movie was written by two different people who were given different instructions for what the film was about.
In the end though, I sort of like this film in spots but in others it falls flat. Had they tightened up the reins in one way or another I would've liked this a lot more. The film didn't do the business I think they expected it to do but some of that fault lies with the marketing. It was positioned as a laugh a minute movie which it isn't. At its core, it's a dramatic movie with comedy touches. It raises some interesting questions, but it makes me wish that Vaughn would branch back into drama again. If only, so people can truly see how good an actor he is.
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