"The Dilemma" Movie Review: Not a Comedy, not a Drama, and Definitely not Worth Seeing

A A A Comments (4) By Robert Wilonsky Thursday, Jan 13 2011

From Ron Howard, director of the better carmaker dramedy Gung Ho, The Dilemma is a myriad of subplots piled into the trunk of a lemon.

Definitely not Swingers.

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Vince Vaughn is Ronny, co-owner of a boutique car-engine manufacturer. He’s the pitchman; the brains belong to Nick, played by Kevin James. Their intention—to build the guts for the first electric-powered muscle car and sell the prototype to Dodge.

There’s the larger storyline: Ronny sees Nick’s wife (Winona Ryder) messing around with a tattooed love boy (Channing Tatum), and his inability to reveal the infidelity sends Ronny into a slapstick free-for-pratfall. Then there’s Ronny’s own commitment issues to girlfriend Jennifer Connelly, the frat boy’s wet dream in a Cubbies tee. Ah, and what of Ronny’s gambling addiction? Just wait for it.

And Queen Latifah’s here too—well, here and there, in a role that appears to have been added and then forgotten just about after she was hired. The Dilemma is a mess, in short— not comedy, not drama, not clever, not insightful, only forgettable.

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Bull 01/17/2011 4:02:00 PM

Weird!!!!! This "review" has been on the front page of Yahoo! for over a week. That means this is a bought and paid for advertorial -- someone's trying to sink this movie. What the hell is going on?!

01/17/2011 1:12:00 PM

Pot calling kettle black. Your use of "must of" in place of "must have" slots you in the illiterate category. What does " must of " mean? As far as the movie, this is not surprising. The heavier the promotion, the worse the product and this one even has a 15 minute, "how Dilemma was made" running on Showtime/Max.

01/15/2011 7:33:00 PM

this article must of been written by a 13 year old. you are prime to write a stage show, idiot.

01/14/2011 12:40:00 PM

saw a special preview of the movie. Laughed really hard...one time...but that was because some dude tripped and spilled all the food and drinks he was carrying back to his seat in the theater.