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The Ten
Reviewed by Rich Drees
 With the rise
of political correctness over the last two decades, dramatic films
that deal with controversial aspects of religion have been met with
resistance, but not as much as the very infrequent comedies about
religion have. Perhaps its because a drama can inherently claim in
people’s minds a higher artistic intent than the lowly,
just-in-it-for-laughs comedy. Scorsese’s controversial Last
Temptation Of Christ can be argued as a study of Jesus’ state of
mind while on the crucifix while a film like Monty Python’s
Meaning Of Life is often attacked by those who feel that it
simply mocks the life of Christ.
I mention this
not as a preamble to an argument that the comedy The Ten – an
anthology of ten sketches based on the similarly numbered
Commandments – contains some deep, universal truth hidden within its
laughs. Far from it. Except for one sequence, The Ten sin’t
really about religion at all and the Ten Commandments are just a
hook to hang some particularly funny sketches on.
Our tour guide
through The Ten is Jeff (Paul Rudd), whose marital trouble
will eventually overspill the narrative framework into its own
segment. Along the way, we meet the likes of two neighbors carrying
the premise of “Keeping up with the Joneses” to ridiculous extremes,
a doctor whose practical jokes land him in hot water, a mousy
librarian whose vacation lover reveals a surprising identity and two
young black men who learn that their biological father may just be a
certain Austrian-accented California governor.
Writer/director
David Wain first came to prominence in the mid-1990s as a member of
the comedy group The State on their eponymously titled M-TV sketch
series. Many of Wain’s State cast mates have joined him for the
film, particularly Ken Marino, who co-authored the screenplay. In
addition, Wain has recruited some surprising faces to fill out the
cast and Wain deserves a certain amount of admiration for securing
Winona Ryder for the “Thou Shalt Not Steal” segment.
Directorially,
The Ten shows a much steadier hand over Wain’s debut feature,
the 2001 summer camp comedy Wet Hot American Summer. While
some of The Ten’s sketches hew more closely to their
respective commandments than others, they are all consistently
funny. The occasional joke may misfire, but they do so at such a low
rate as to be forgivable. The style of comedy here – a blend of
slapstick, irreverence and absurdism that was the hallmark of the
State’s M-TV series – may not be to everyone’s tastes, but for those
who do enjoy that sort of comic sensibility, they will find The
Ten sinfully funny. |
