by Jonathan Little - 2010-04-24

In a film that relies on its leads improvisation amidst a daft plot it is surprising that the film is stolen by those with smaller roles.

The partnership of Tina Fey and Steve Carrell in Date Night looked like a match made in heaven. Possibly America�s biggest comic stars of the moment teaming up as the Foster�s who are just your usual run of the mill hectic family. Their only release is on Date Night when the pair leave the kids with their next door neighbour and go to the steak house. However, after seeing the breakdown of their friend�s relationship they take action. The couple head into the city to a new restaurant. The restaurant though is fully booked and so they steal another couple�s reservation which is when it all goes wrong.

While this was never going to be the greatest storytelling of all time the plot still falls flat and with two heavyweights of comedy in the lead roles you would expect more from them as well. Steve Carrell does ok but Tina Fey too often just improvise with things that aren�t particularly funny and it constantly seems like they are trying to make the best of a bad script as the film lollops along. The most interesting character comes in the shape of Mark Wahlberg�s Holbrooke who steals his two scenes and later we meet the couple whose reservation was stolen and again they completely steal the scene.

While this combination should have been comedy gold the two leads falter due to a poor setup.