You, Me and Dupree
Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson are getting married in an elaborate ceremony in Hawaii, but right from the start there are signs of trouble, first from her horrible father (Michael Douglas), one of those personable guys who will smile as he thrusts the knife into your gut. But a far bigger threat is Matt’s best asshole buddy, Dupree (Owen Wilson), a child-man who shows up at their house right after the honeymoon, homeless, penniless, and protesting that he would never intrude on their privacy, that’s just not how he rolls. “Oh, ridiculous, Dupree, come stay with us until you get back on your feet!”
It is clear from the start that Dupree will never get back on his feet as long as he has a place to crash. He is brutally frank in job interviews, pointing out that he’s not much of a hard worker, among other traits guaranteed not to get him hired. It’s probably just as well, as he would never last a whole day at any job like Home Depot, it would restrict his lifestyle too much. So he sets about upgrading the couple’s cable service to HBO (“I’m going to pay half, I promise!”), overflows their toilet, and sets their house on fire, to name just a few of the things that would have had him out of my house in a nanosecond.
I was about to give up on watching this asshole when the story took a little bit of a different turn. Matt, dealing with his boss, the horrible father, is losing his mojo. He’s no fun anymore, he’s all about the job. Dupree is about nothing but fun, and Kate begins to bond with him. Dupree also starts working out on a bicycle, cleaning up his act a little. It all culminates in a rift between the newlyweds, which, naturally, Dupree has to straighten out, proving he’s not really such a bad guy. I never believed it, nor did I believe it when the father caved in easily when Matt finally grew a pair and faced him down, but it did keep me watching until the end. But, in the end, there’s nothing much to this movie that hasn’t been done better a dozen times or more. There is a cameo from Lance Armstrong, the Mighty Joe Young of cycling. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.