This was an utterly putrid movie that lasted about an hour too long. Every gag was as drawn out as a coma patient's breath and just as unfunny. Tim (Paul Rudd) is an ambitious guy trying to get a promotion in his company. He finally gets his shot when his boss (Bruce Greenwood) invites him to a dinner. The catch is that everyone is supposed to bring a guest who is a bona fide idiot. The person with the biggest social reject wins a trophy and the esteem of the boss. While wrestling with the morality of this, Tim accidentally hits Barry (Steve Carell) with his car. Barry taxidermies mice and stages elaborate shadowbox dioramas with them. Seeing it as fate, Tim invites Barry to the dinner but soon realizes that Barry is a cyclone of disaster and he cannot escape.
The movie tries to walk that line between making Barry an object of derision and an object of pity, giving him a sad backstory where his wife left him for his boss, but the character is so stupid you can't root for him. Tim just comes off as a mealy-mouth coward, lacking the balls to either make a clean break with Barry or man up and just go to the dinner. It squanders the comedic talents of the two leads and only gives scant minutes to the dozen other highly talented comedians that play the other executives' dinner guests.
It was a total waste of time that I could not, in good conscience, recommend to anyone.
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