UNFINISHED BUSINESS: A Waste Of Everybody’s Time

Unfinished Business was something of a surprise to hear about, but the combination of Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco was enough to convince me that it might be worth a shot. Coming across as a clichéd but entertaining story of down on their luck business men on a European jaunt, I expected some impressive improvisational comedy from Vaughn, some gravitas from Wilkinson, and maybe something worthy of note from Dave Franco (who was great in Now You See Me). But, as we all know, expectations are a dangerous thing.

Expectations Obliterated

I had been watching Unfinished Business for all of five minutes before I began glancing at my watch. Nothing was happening. The story, as I came to realize, was that the lead character Dan Trunkman (Vaughn), is walking out on his job after a disagreement with his boss. Then, in a lackluster Jerry Maguire–type parody he invites his co-workers to come with him. Minutes later he is standing by his car with Timothy McWinters (Wilkinson), a colleague forced into retirement, and Mike Pancake (Franco), a hopeless soul who was in the office for an interview. This instigating moment of drama was as boring as the description I have just given you.

Unfinished Business is about Dan, Timothy and Mike, and their small business, which does something very boring. It was so detailed within the film, though, that you couldn’t fault the writer for accuracy. But you could fault him for confusing you. They sold metal shavings, which were remnants from industrial manufacturing. It’s mostly important to the plot because they were supposed to be quintessentially boring business men. The three are about to close an important deal, a deal which soon goes awry. They then scramble to save it in what is a hugely subdued chase across Europe.

In the midst of this business trip are Dan’s own problems in his personal life. All he is doing in his work and business deal is attempting to earn enough money to place his bullied son in a private school. But while the screenwriter’s devotion to making Dan a considerate man and father is admirable, it completely misses the mark. Not only because the role is underwritten, but because it is confused with the film’s deep desire to be a frat pack comedy.

A Failure Of Mixed Genres

Unfinished Business fails on a number of fronts, the primary one being its attempt to mix genres and meanings. The film is advertised, and believes itself to be, something akin to The Hangover. A group of ordinary guys go crazy on a trip of debauchery and mayhem. But its overall execution of this trope is an abysmal failure.

The nearly retired Timothy is sexually frustrated, and is bitter about his marriage. He is two-dimensional and quite unappealing as a character. While Mike, it later turns out, has learning difficulties and although he is sweet, his lack of sexual experience is crudely interpreted. He ultimately becomes nothing more than a punchline. Timothy and Mike’s expectation of the atypical business trip culminates with the completely inane and confused inclusion of scenes of sex and nudity. A scene in a German unisex spa is especially stupid and just plain wrong.

In a better written film, much of this frat pack humour would be fun, but the film goes to such lengths to provoke a response that the jokes are bordering on offensive, so it’s probably for the best that they fall flat. The crazy scrapes that they get themselves into, despite their potential for comedy, also barely scrape the barrel. They wander into what can only be described as the “special room” in a gay bar (or is it just a bathroom?), they are attacked with tear gas and at one point they crash their car. All of these ideas had the makings of a good joke, but are ultimately completely forgettable, to the point where I even completely forgot specific scenes until I later rewatched the trailer.

The problems of this crazy frat pack comedy are compounded further by mixing it with the story of a man on a mission to look after his family. Dan is essentially the film’s central point and he is a straight forward, moral guy. He is a happy family man and has no interest in anything outside of having a few drinks. He doesn’t think the same way as Timothy and Mike, and because they are so two-dimensionally written I’m not sure they even think that way either. The whole film smacks of an anecdote a guy might tell about his business trip to make him seem fun and cool, but in reality it just doesn’t make sense.

But even this throwing together of genres wouldn’t be so bad if the writing was any good. But it’s not. It’s shallow and badly thought out. It is unclear whether the screenwriter Steve Conrad tried to turn a story about a good business man into a frat pack comedy, or tried to imbue a bad comedy with a sense of depth. In either case, he failed. This failure is magnified by the incredibly lacklustre direction of Ken Scott. Any director who fails to make Vince Vaughn an energetic onscreen presence is just not doing his job right.

A Waste Of Talent

I am a great fan of Tom Wilkinson and I find Vince Vaughn’s natural aptitude for improvisational comedy very appealing. But this film is a true waste of their talents. Wilkinson has nothing to do. Absolutely nothing. His presence onscreen is pointless. The life is sucked out of Vaughn, while Franco’s attempt at endearing just about gets by. I say just gets by because Conrad’s hackneyed idea of a person with learning difficulties is insulting. But Franco can’t be blamed for trying his best.

On paper, this film must have seemed such a good idea. It is a story which is familiar and easy to sell to the public. But throw together a confused, shallow script compounded further by poor direction, and the whole thing left me feeling stupefied by what a extraordinary waste of energy it was. It’s at times like this I feel sympathy for the other people involved. Nick Frost has a small role in the movie, but it’s so stupid and so based on a combination of stereotypes that I found myself not caring about him at all.

Conclusion

It’s not often a film bores me as much as Unfinished Business did. I sometimes hate films and it invigorates me with energy. But not so with this one. It drew the life out of me like a filmic vampire, and my will to talk about is waning by the second. It was badly made, badly advertised, and to be honest I only stayed in the cinema out of loyalty to Vaughn and Wilkinson. I know that if you want to see this film I won’t be able to stop you, and it’s only right that you see it and make up your mind for yourself. But maybe do yourself a favour, and just don’t.

Have you seen Unfinished Business? What did you think of it? 

(top image source: 20th Century Fox)