Movie Review: Delivery Man
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
Delivery Man is an English-language remake of a Canadian film titled Starbuck (2011) and was written and directed by Ken Scott. Scott also made the original and clearly he is committed to the material. This film is the story of Dave Wozniak (Vince Vaughn), who while in the midst of many troubles of his own, is informed that he is the father of 533 children – Wozniak had made over 600 donations to a fertility clinic twenty years ago and now he is the subject of a lawsuit from 142 of his offspring that want his identity revealed for their own peace of mind.
The film also stars Cobie Smulders as Wozniak’s girlfriend, Chris Pratt as the best friend and lawyer who helps battle the lawsuit, and Andrzej Blumenfeld who is stellar as the patriarch of the Wozniak clan.
Vaughn’s Wozniak starts out in the film as an arrested post-adolescent that could fit in well with any crowd around him. Yet despite his ability to be well-liked he cannot get his own life under control at all. He simply has not learned any real form of responsibility and he continues in a pattern that just leads nowhere. Then the bomb drops on him about his instant abundant family. This is the point where a normal person would have a nervous breakdown. Wozniak, as you could no doubt guess, is not normal. He reacts by attempting to find out about the kids and interact with them under false pretenses as he is not at all ready to be unveiled as their father for a variety of reasons that the film lays out. Once the interaction with the children occurs Vaughn’s character then starts to evolve and eventually mature by the film’s end.
That all being said I must confess this film is a bit of an odd duck for me. Firstly, a film about a guy who donated sperm 600+ times is being distributed by Disney? Secondly, based on the trailer alone I knew this was going to be a bit predictable. Vaughn, in my estimation, wasn’t going to go all Robin Williams and shoot for an Oscar by being a serial killer or whatever. So, while the film was really well made on all fronts it just doesn’t take a genius to guess a bit of the end resolution. That is something I normally abhor; but not so much in this case. Vaughn is fun to watch as always. More importantly, he isn’t portraying a caricature of a good-time fella. He has problems and suffers for them in his own eyes and in the eyes of his family. Worst of all, he suffers for them in his own fathers’ judgment.
Lastly, it is a Vince Vaughn movie that is not R-rated. It was not an over the top effort that would shoot for laughs-at-all-costs. Don’t get me wrong. When well executed I love that sort of film. Wedding Crashers comes to mind. It is just that, for me, a Vince Vaughn movie that does not take the fast-talking, yet hilariously puckish actor, to the farthest limit possible seems like a miss about 99% of the time. Delivery Man is the 1% exception.
Vince Vaughn and Cobie Smulders in “Delivery Man.” © 2013 – Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The element of predictability is one I mentioned already. The other main downside the film suffers from is the somewhat uneven interaction with Wozniak’s offspring. Obviously no film can show 533 genuine links from child to parent. It therefore tries to show a variety of interactions and that is certainly understandable. Some interactions are inventive, funny, poignant, and satisfying but not all. I will leave it to you to decide which are least successful.
On average Delivery Man is far better than its flaws and was certainly better than I anticipated. For example, the scenes with Vaughn and his on-screen father are certainly worth the price of a ticket all by itself. Every father wants to be the sort of father that the senior Wozniak is. He is the soft-spoken heart of this family film. By my calculations there are 391 children that Dave Wozniak has not met yet so there is lots of room to roam in a potential sequel if this film delivers financial success.
Steven Gahm
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