The Smoke Signal

By: Sonia Dhawan

The Dilemma is a movie about two best friends, Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (Kevin James), and the lengths they would go to protect one another. It focuses on the ethical problem Ronny encounters when he sees Nick’s wife Geneva (Winona Ryder) cheating with tattooed, muscular Zip (Channing Tatum) and is torn over whether he should tell his friend.

The trailer, which garnered attention last year for negatively using the word “gay,” implies that the movie is another laugh out loud comedy. Though it is still a comedy, the movie takes full advantage of sappy background music and canned “sad” faces, courtesy of the main characters.

Interestingly, the best parts of the movie are the scenes with the supporting characters. Clint Howard plays Herbert Trimpy, the hilariously uptight manager of the garden where Ronny discovers Geneva’s infidelity. Cousin Betty (Grace Rex) interrupts Valentine during a heated speech, leading to one of the few scenes where Vaughn is truly funny. Zip had a disappointingly small role in the movie; Tatum played his “sensitive but strong” personality well.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the main cast. While the friendship between Ronny and Nick was believable, James was once again relegated to the “cute and innocent” role—breaking the mold only once or twice throughout the film. The chemistry between the two men and their partners Beth (Jennifer Connelly) and Geneva was seriously lacking, especially in the case of Nick and Geneva—they aren’t at all believable as a couple. Geneva’s personality changes drastically and unbelievably throughout the film, going from manipulative to remorseful, and Beth is just boring.

Even though most scenes are average, this movie deserves a look because there are some moments of comedic gold that are most definitely worth the time.

Rating: B-