Delivery Man is sold on the premise of having Vince Vaughn secretly trailing a bunch of his progeny around and acting as their “guardian angel.” This is meant to be endearing, but it doesn’t really come off that way. The film miscalculates the appeal of that scenario, mainly by saddling its protagonist with hangups that make sympathy a difficult proposition at best.
The film introduces us to David (Vince Vaughn), who is currently growing marijuana in his apartment in the hopes of making enough money to pay off an $80,000 loan. He’s a constant disappointment to his family and his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders), who has just gotten pregnant. David is completely out of his depth, and things only get worse when he finds out that all that sperm he donated years ago produced over 500 kids, and that 142 of those kids are suing in order to find out who their real father is. David receives a file detailing the lives of those kids, and he decides to check on some of them, finding some purpose in helping these kids out.
The movie is kind of strange in that it tries so hard in its first act to convince us that David is kind of a terrible person. Modern comedies are filled with lovable slackers, but David isn’t one of them. Perhaps it is just the casting of Vince Vaughn, who has always exuded something more sinister and jockish behind the sloppy exterior, but the film really gets off on the wrong foot in making it difficult to sympathize with its main character. It makes his actions later in the film selfish at best and downright creepy at worst.
Because he ends up stalking these kids. And he does this in lieu of actually dealing with any of the problems in his life. The film sets up all these obstacles and just kind of waves them away. Meanwhile, the struggles of the other characters seem much more compelling. The film paints out this really sketchy portrait of his children. It never gets into exactly why they’re so desperate to find the anonymous sperm donor. It’s taken for granted that kids want to know their fathers, but the film doesn’t make it out like any of them suffered from not knowing who David was.
It might have been interesting to meet at least on of these mothers. Or spend a little time with these kids outside of David’s influence. As such, there’s very little tension in the choice that David has to make. It’s his to make alone, and the stakes never really feel that high. Vince Vaughn doesn’t look he cares much about any of this, really. Vaughn is often drafted to play the everyman, a role that he has never really seemed all that comfortable in. He highlights the character’s worst attributes and fails to let the warmth through. A game supporting cast livens things up, with Chris Pratt in particular serving as a bright spot. But the film hinges on the lead’s likability.
Delivery Man hits the right sentiment in the end, but it’s a really rough road getting there. The film actually has its heart in the right place, the film finding a pretty sweet conclusion to this unlikely story. But for most of its runtime, it’s too concerned with antics, pushing the character to the boundaries of acceptable human behavior. It is usually good to have a flawed character, but that paradigm has its limits. There comes a point in a feel-good comedy where we ought to be rooting for the protagonist. That moment doesn’t really come in this movie.
My Rating:
