‘Delivery Man’ Review
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Andrzej Blumenfeld, Simon Delaney, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Patten, Adam Chanler-Berat, Britt Robertson, Jack Reynor, Amos VanderPoel, Matthew Daddario | Written and Directed by Ken Scott
Delivery Man has Vince Vaughn starring as David Wozniak, an incompetent meat delivery guy who has serious money problems, can’t seem to do anything right and has just got his girlfriend pregnant. To top all that, he comes home one day to find a lawyer waiting for him and is presented with the news that he has fathered 533 children through sperm donations he made 20 years earlier. 142 of these children all want to know who their biological father is and have began a lawsuit to find out. David then embarks on a journey to decide whether he should reveal his identity, and to learn a little about himself as a father as well.
Delivery Man is a film which might be a bit confused about what it is trying show us. The story itself is quite ridiculous and knowing Vince Vaughn’s style, that would suggest that it is a comedy. However, it could just quite as easily sit in the ‘drama’ category, and with a few of the scenes in this film it seems to be trying its hand at that too, being quite touching and moving. However, this results in a strange see-saw effect in which the film never really achieves either and sits in the middle leaving the viewer quite lost to how they should react. The film isn’t silly enough to be a comedy, but it isn’t touching enough to be a drama.
Now I am sure a few of you have already read the words “Vince Vaughn” and are rolling your eyes and planning to never see this film ever. Especially as I also just found out that this is an American remake of a Canadian film (from the same writer/director) which goes by the name of Starbuck which was released a few years prior. However, you shouldn’t write this film off as terrible. I haven’t seen the original, so I have no basis of comparison, but I felt this film did work well. It is a very interesting story and quite unexpected at times, as David stalks a few of his ‘children’ in secret trying to make their lives better as some kind of ‘Guardian Angel’. Also, the performance of Wozniak’s Lawyer/Friend by Chris Pratt is definitely worth a watch as he manages to be the most entertaining part of the entire film.
Overall, this film isn’t terrible, it has some laughs and it does have quite a few touching scenes too. It sits somewhere in the middle, kind of like Vaughn’s character on his decision for the majority of the film.
Delivery Man is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
