The Dilemma is an interesting movie insofar as it looks kind of like a wacky comedy of errors on paper, and in many ways it is, but there is more going on under the surface that takes this from typical zany romp to funny comedy with genuine heart.

The premise is pretty simple. Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) are best friends and business partners on the verge of securing a major deal with Chrysler for a device on smart car engines that make them sound like muscle cars. Nick is married to Geneva (Winona Ryder) and they appear to be perfectly happy and have a great marriage. Their marriage looks so good it makes Ronny look at his relationship with Beth (Jennifer Connelly) and decide to pop the question. While trying to book a botanical garden in which to pop said question, Ronny sees Geneva making out with a man (Channing Tatem) who is most assuredly not Nick. Thus begins the painful process of  Ronny trying to decide whether or not to tell his best friend for fear the resulting  fallout will ruin their deal with Chrysler. The rest of the movie is Ronny trying to figure out what to do whilst making everything way worse in the process.

The story isn’t really breaking new ground and touches on well worn themes but the delivery of those themes feels genuine and heartfelt. With a director like Ron Howard at the helm one expects a certain level of quality, as long as we aren’t talking about accurately adapting historical novels, and the trailers for this film looked like a strange fit for him. The finished product makes a lot more sense. I am not going to float that this is a deep and moving film that says profound things about the human condition and the nature of love but it does have a lot more going on than typical comedies of this ilk.

In the middle of pratfalls, awkward run ins and occasional toilet humor there is a sweet movie here about friendship and relationships that looks at the topics from several angles. The movie doesn’t just deal with one character’s perspective but rather delves a bit into motivations for doing the things people do in relationships and what exactly is expected out of close friendships. Do you tell when you know it will potentially devastate not just one aspect of your friend’s life but several others? What if there are extenuating circumstances that include your friend maybe not being so pure himself? What if you have something that makes you vulnerable to counter attack if you reveal the wife’s infidelity? Beyond those questions about the friendship aspects the film also dives into honesty and consequences in love relationships in ways that don’t feel judgmental or preachy but  as more of a natural outcropping from the story.

The acting is good across the board particularly from Kevin James who drops his normal shtick in favor of some real acting on top of the goofiness he is known for. He digs deep here and really sells some of the more emotional scenes. It is really nice to see and the chemistry between James and Vince Vaughn feels really good and it is easy to buy them as close friends both when they are getting along and when they are not. Channing Tatum stands out as ‘Zip’ the guy that Geneva is fucking. He doesn’t feel like a hollow one note but rather a fully formed person with feelings. That is one of the strong points of the film, the characters are well formed as opposed to just being ciphers. Jennifer Connelly has the least to do as her job is mostly being supportive and earnest and then eventually suspicious but she does the best she can here. Winona Ryder does a great job of juggling several emotions convincingly such that you can’t just villainize her entirely.

That is one of the great things about the movie, it isn’t content with giving you one dimensional characters but rather delivers fully fleshed out characters who feel like they are doing what they are doing for a purpose rather than because it is what is written in the script. I found myself caring about the characters by the end of the film and that was a bit of a surprised based on what I expected going into it.

It isn’t all roses. Not all of the jokes work and there are some long stretches that could have been tightened up to keep them from dragging.  Thankfully these are fairly minor issues and don’t derail the movie but they do keep this from being great.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

The Dilemma is a very good film but falls just short of being a great one. The performances, writing and direction are very well done but the whole thing would have benefited from tighter editing and a reworking of some of the wayward jokes. Overall, however, it is a sweet comedy that  hits more marks than it misses and offers a little something extra underneath all the more standard comedy bits. Worth checking out, especially on a date. But probably not if you are cheating.