Flirting With Disaster / Amours, Flirt et Calamités [DVD]

Features

• Type: DVD
• Studio: Alliance Films
• Language(s): english, french
• Subtitle(s): english
• Director(s): David O. Russell
• Actor(s): Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Lily Tomlin

Written and directed by David O. Russell (Three Kings, Spanking The Monkey), this hysterically original comedy was cheered by critics and audiences nationwide. In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller - Duplex, Meet The Parents) - joined by his wife (Patricia Arquette - Human Nature, Holes) and a sexy adoption counselor (Téa Leoni - People I Know, Hollywood Ending) - embarks on a cross-country search for his "roots." Yet as he careens from one outrageous situation to another, Mel finds himself tempted by the seductive counselor - even as his wife starts a flirtation of her own! By the time they meet up with his free-spirited birth parents, the whole situation is spinning hysterically out of control! Also starring Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin, this hilarous hit is sure to entertain everyone! Sometimes a filmmaker's second movie gets labeled as a sophomore slump. David O. Russell ( Spanking the Monkey) shreds that fate with Flirting with Disaster, an outrageous, free-spirited comedy about private people forced into public situations. Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) finds the opportunity he's been waiting a lifetime for: an adoption agency rep (Téa Leoni) has located his birth parents and the agency will fly him to California if they can record the reunion. With wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette) and new son in tow, the neurotic Mel is compelled to discover his origins, despite the protests of his neurotic adoptive parents (a wonderful Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal). To give away the plot any more would be a crime, but as the title states, Mel is on a collision course of Oedipal proportions. Russell, who made incest an intriguing black-comedy topic in Spanking, is very liberal with sex and permits dangerous situations. His characters mix it up at a moment's notice. The two women along for the ride are not just bit players: Leoni ( Deep Impact) keeps her high- energy comic routine flying, while the grounded Arquette keeps the baby in arm, despite the mad wanderings of her husband. Stiller is a perfect comic foil. - -Doug Thomas