The Details

2011 black comedy

Rating: 13/20

Plot: A doctor's life begins to unravel when raccoon start attacking his landscaping.

"Why don't you just go fuck one of your raccoons?"

I suppose the less you know about what happens in this movie, the better experience it'll be. So I'm leaving the plot synopsis at that. I like my comedies like my comedies like I like my men, and this one's as dark as they come. But it's almost a cheerfully black comedy, one that relishes a little too much in the darkness which gives the movie an attitude that I'm not sure I like. The performances are good, with Toby doing his best to take a role that will help him shake off his Spiderman costume. He's a suitable everyman, the kind of actor needed for this story, and he manages, for better or for worse, to be likable even when he's at his most despicable. In two scenes, he shows off the blood vessels in his neck, and in one, he does some pretty magical things with his tongue while his character checks out some online, vegetable-related pornography. But before you heap awards upon him for that tongue thing, watch him play basketball in this movie. He plays like a pre-werewolf Michael J. Fox, and as we all know, that's not a good thing at all. Elizabeth Banks is also pretty good and nails the climactic scene both comically and emotionally, not always an easy thing to pull off. And I loved Laura Linney's performance as a nutsy neighbor and Dennis Haysbert's as Spiderman's buddy in need of a kidney. This movie's a little all over the place and spends too much time in a few areas and maybe not enough in others. One character simply disappears, and a few others make questionable decisions that would not really happen in real life. I guess that's acceptable in a cheerfully black comedy though. At least it's never boring. I also liked how it was set up for us with a series of random objects--the titular details, I guess--that were all going to factor into the story somehow. It was kind of fun watching how they popped up. This isn't a very funny movie, but it is amusing and manages to say a little bit about the character of human beings, infidelity, friendship, and raccoon. And a scene taking place in a church, complete with a dancing member of the congregation, is too cool to believe.