150 Word Review: ‘Flirting With Disaster’ (1996)
Growing up is hard to do
Director David O. Russell’s best movie is 1999’s satire about the first Gulf War Three Kings. His second-best came out three years earlier, a modern screwball comedy about adoption called Flirting with Disaster.
A baby-faced Ben Stiller stars as a not-so-charming nebbish compelled to find his biological parents and drags along his patient wife played by Patricia Arquette, and Tea Leoni as an uptight documentarian.
Along the way, they pick up a pair of ATF agents, who are dating, played by Richard Jenkins and pre-Thanos James Brolin. These gay characters somehow defy and reinforce stereotypes at the same time, it’s a fascinating slice of the 90s.
Flirting with Disaster is refreshingly mean, and horny and no one is completely likable. It’s an entertaining romp until Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin show as a quirky older couple with a secret. They turbocharge the slapstick, and the ending is a hilarious wreck.
