Oh, I have an idea. What if a young couple moved into a New York duplex that was really cool except that upstairs there’s this old lady who drives them crazy. Wouldn’t that be funny? And then they get so upset that they eventually try to kill them but mess up every attempt. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?

No. No, it wouldn’t. Duplex’s humor runs on the same level as Home Alone, only without the charm. Duplex is a script full of “wouldn’t it be funny if” type of things that simply don’t wind up very funny on the screen. An endless stream of stupid gags and slapstick moments, not even the potentially humorous prospect of Wallace Shawn falling down a flight of stairs draws a laugh.

In response to crazy antics by their upstairs tenant, Alex (Ben Stiller) and Nancy (Drew Barrymore), respond with little but simple frustration, until the frustration builds to extreme heights. There’s something about Ben Stiller that just makes him funny no matter what he says, but in Duplex that’s all he has to work with, because he isn’t getting anything from the script.

The characters are clearly comic book figures, responding to increasingly improbable situations in increasingly improbable ways. No point in pointing out the absolute lack of character in these characters, there’s not the slightest bit of reality in them. Though this quasi-fantasy world in which Duplex is set allows us to appreciate the humor through an absolute suspension of disbelief, it also significantly undermines its own real world-based humor at the same time.

Strangely enough, Duplex feels like its wants to approach a Coen-esque sort of feel. The rare moments when the humor hits original ground, it’s actually at its darkest. But it just doesn’t work. The failed attempts at taking out an old woman are a long ways from the dark quirkiness of The Ladykillers and the Duplex’ hit man doesn’t hold a candle to that of the Coen’s Intolerable Cruelty.

Certain audiences will find it all absolutely hilarious, I’m sure. It just seems like, moving into the 21st century we might be moving in on more genuine character humor a la Ben Stiller’s The Royal Tenenbaums. I suppose there’s still an audience for it though, so producers are going to keep churning it out.

Fortunately, Ben Stiller still has future opportunities to redeem himself. Dodgeball comes out this summer. And if Stiller will throw rubber balls at people, I will watch.

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