Review: Serving Sara

Serving Sara was panned prior to release by all of the nations biggest critics. James Beradinelli gave it one star out of four, E-Online gave it a “D”, and Roger Ebert was too scared to even review it. I didn’t think the film itself was all that great, but it offers us some entertaining tidbits, and is a great way to kill time; it is not comparable to a death in the electric char, though some people make it out to be. I actually admit to thoroughly enjoying the flick, except the ending was far to off beat for me to strongly recommend it.

The film features a process serving agency. Their top employee must serve Sara Moore (Elizabeth Hurley) divorce papers, after her husband puts in a request for them. She does not want to see these, for her true love will be lost, but primarily because she will not have the millions of dollars that she once had. The only way that she will be able to get half of her husband’s fortune is to legally divorce in the state of New York, where she lives, and not Texas, where he lives. In order to do this she must serve the divorce papers to him before he is able to send them to her. This doesn’t allow her a lot of time, because the agency will track her down much faster than she can run away from them.

Matthew Perry is an all around likable guy. Elizabeth Hurley is a sweet, sexy, and daring individual. When you mix the two together you get just the right blend of sugar and spice, which creates the best chemistry of the year. While watching the two make jokes, have fun, and simply talk with each other, your face turns to a shade of gold and a grin appears; they are a match made in heaven. The thing I like the most about their pairing was the “opposites attract” flare that it has; when the two contrast even in the most devious of ways everything seems to be right. The movie doesn’t teach any moral lessons but it’s a nice little easy going love story.

The films biggest problem is the high amount of tired sex jokes that its material contains. When humans and cows aren’t getting horny with each other, and women aren’t twitching and flashing their fake breasts; everything is fine, except that’s virtually never. The girls just want to have fun attitude shown in many of the scenes is sometimes clever and poignant, but most of the time it is disgusting and grody. I think that the film could’ve benefited by the raunchy but well written style of humor exhibited in Shallow Hal and Legally Blonde; for it’s about the only kind of comedy that works these days.

I can’t believe someone actually hired Cedric the Entertainer to play an unfunny role. The part he plays isn’t exactly serious, but wasn’t written to make jokes. These feelings might have been created because of my dislike for his entire act, but I don’t think that it’s humanly possible for a person to laugh at his characters dialogue. He was great in the recent Barbershop at times, but I just find him to be annoying; and I think that his whole gimmick is plain lame. His role made the film suffer.

With the absence of the last three minutes, the ending is flat out stupid and undeniably flat. We can only see enough of cars flattening things out, improbable causes, and people shouting screams of pain. By the end of all of the chaos, I didn’t care anymore for the characters, and the whole movie was thrown into the toilet. At the beginning we get energetic and fresh material, but the last ten minutes are only exercising a films right to torture an audience. It was almost like the screenwriters stuck some shitty concoction into the story because they had no where to turn, but had to let the movie clock in at feature length. I probably would’ve given this comedic effort a strong recommendation if it weren’t for the weak climax.

In comprehension, I will give Serving Sara a light recommendation. Half of the time the material is stupid and unpleasant to watch, but the other half of the film the entertainment is very fun. Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley exhibit the best of chemistry, and their pairing is completely ingenious; which is about the only thing the casting directors should be commented upon. For a nice date flick, the movie works, otherwise, it doesn’t. Plain and Simple.

-Danny, Bucket Reviews