It's a tired discussion... a trailer can effectively ruin a movie. It can do so in a number of different ways. The first way is that it can provide the plot to the entire movie leaving you without anything to even want to see (the most egregious case of this is Castaway). Then, a trailer can fool you into believing that the film you will see is brilliant and that it will follow a certain actor or storyline and completely mislead the viewer (also, for the worst case of this, see the newest Godzilla). But, to me, the thing that a trailer can do that is the absolute most foul is show all the best jokes and hilarious moments from a film. Now, we've all come to expect a certain standard of comedy from a Seth Rogen film and until now trailers for his films have always given us good laughs, but allowed for the best laughs to be hidden until actually viewing the film (No, I don't count The Guilt Trip in this). Most of the time the trailer will go so far as to show an alternate joke in a scene in the trailer so that when we see the movie the scene is the same, but the joke is fresh and inventive. Unfortunately, that trend has ended with The Night Before which provides its laughs almost entirely within the trailer leaving not much else to laugh at within the film. And while this isn't exactly the film's fault, anyone who goes to see the movie based off of watching the trailer is going to feel a bit underwhelmed.
What we do have here, as noted in the trailer, are three best friends out the night before Christmas as is tradition to party the night away. They do this because fourteen years prior, Ethan's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) parents were killed by a drunk drive and his best homies Isaac (Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) didn't want to leave him alone on Christmas. So, they've all essentially grown up and grown apart and meet for one last rendezvous before they part ways never to act so juvenile again. Each one is going through their own personal shit and it all comes to a head in the night. Ethan is suffering a break up and the fact that he makes excuses never having to fully grow up even though he's a 33-year old man. Isaac is about to be a father and while he's holding it together on the outside, inside he's dying. This comes out due to his wife's present of every drug ever for him to do on the night before (something also seen in the trailer). And Chris is dealing with the fame of being a pro football player, having only gotten good at such an older age due to steroids. The three friends race around New York City looking for an elusive Christmas party they've never been able to find fourteen years prior. And, as I've mentioned several times, this can all be found in the trailer.
The film is funny. And I'll give Rogen and co. credit that had I gone into the movie blindly, I would've laughed a lot harder. The selling point scene in the trailer where Rogen, high off of a cocktail of all the drugs he's taken throughout the night, pukes in the church and screaming about how the Jews didn't kill Jesus. This is a great comedic scene, however it was attached to every. single. preview. And while not every funny moment (Rogen getting texts from a phone that isn't his) is ruined by the trailer, the expectation that there would be more comedy outside of what the trailer shows just wasn't present enough.
There is a certain charm to the film and all three of the main characters are very likable. There is a bit of A Christmas Carol parable happening intertwined with a creepy drug dealer (played hilariously by Michael Shannon) that isn't ruined and lends to the fun of the film. There's a lot of heart as we have also been accustomed to getting within a Rogen film. But, the comedy is really lacking. As Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie certainly aren't known for being comedic actors, we know from past films that they can also hold their own when it comes to a funny film. It does make me wonder though if the movie suffered from the lack of the ability to improvise as well as Rogen does when he's in a film with the Apatow crew (Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jason Segal, Paul Rudd, etc.).
There's also a bit of unevenness to the film that has a bit of trouble balancing the real life problems with the comedy. There's also a couple of scenes where the group gets separated and it doesn't feel organic, it feels forced in order to get another plot point addressed or stretched to make a mediocre joke. I know it feels like I'm bashing the movie, but it's mostly because there were such high hopes for it. There hasn't been a very good Christmas comedy to come out in recent memory that's for adults. We keep getting bland kids Christmas films, films like Black Nativity, or the worst-- those whitewashed family comedy/drama films about rich white people problems (I'm looking right at you Love The Coopers). And, yes, this is the best adult Christmas comedy since Bad Santa, but it doesn't have a lot of competition. So, my advice is this: if you haven't seen a trailer for it, don't watch one. See the movie blindly and the jokes from the trailer that all made us chuckle, in context will make you laugh hysterically. For those of you that have seen the trailer, maybe wait until this one hits Redbox because there's really no other draw to bring you out to the theater to see this particular film.
C+
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