It's been some time since “Throw Momma from the Train” and “The War of the Roses,” so it's nice to be reminded what a nasty little sucker Danny DeVito can be when he's got the right material. And he certainly does here with a script by Larry Doyle, who used to work on “The Simpsons.”
In “Duplex,” director DeVito puts Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore through the kind of house hell that makes those Amityville digs and Cold Creek Manor look like dream homes on HGTV. Alex (Stiller) and Nancy (Barrymore) seem to have found the perfect house in Brooklyn. It's a historic building on a quiet, tree-lined street, with three fireplaces, shopping a block away, a mommies' park across the street and, as real estate agent Harvey Fierstein exults, “Built-ins! Built-ins! Built-ins!”
There's a slight hitch — Mrs. Connelly (Eileen Essell), an elderly Irish woman who lives upstairs in a rent-controlled apartment. Still, she seems to be a benign old soul whose lease on life — if not on the apartment — is about to expire. However, once the contract is signed and they've moved in, she not only perks up, but becomes a powerful threat to their health, their work and their sanity.
The TV is on all night, with the volume at full blast. Alex, a stay-at-home novelist with a looming deadline, is kept busy taking out her garbage and taking her to the market, where she carefully counts every blueberry in the little basket.
Before long, Alex and Nancy can't take it anymore. They decide they'll have to give the Grim Reaper a boost. They're gonna have to kill her. Doyle's script is episodic, essentially offering multiple variations on the same gag: They scheme, she triumphs. It's classic Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote. And it's often very funny.
Barrymore and Stiller make an exceptionally appealing couple. They play off each other so well, it would be nice to see them paired again in another picture.
But it's Essell who keeps the comedy on course. An octogenarian stage and television actress in England, who's never made a movie, she's simply sublime. Whether sticking a withered, age-spotted finger into every candy in a box of chocolates, enjoying a bubble bath in front of an appalled Stiller, or gumming a caramel, she's hilarious — a shameless gross-out granny.
As can be true of DeVito's movies, “Duplex” is a bit over the top, but anyone with a strong stomach and a dark sense of humor will enjoy it. And even hardened horror fans may find themselves covering their eyes when Alex is forced to give his unwanted tenant mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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