Directed by David O. Russell

Starring Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segall, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin

"Flirting With Disaster"

Opened: March 29, 1996 | Rated: R


I was worried about "Flirting With Disaster" from the moment I heard Ben Stiller was in it. The man has done nothing worth while since his late '80s TV show.

But the dry streak ends here -- "Flirting With Disaster" is a riot. I'm usually not one for comedy of the uncomfortable, but Stiller and co-stars Patricia Arquette and Tea Leoni make 90 minutes of awkward situations almost painfully funny.

Stiller plays a man who has recently had his first child with wife Arquette and his offspring becomes a catalyst for him be search for his birth parents.

His neurotic adoptive folks (George Segall and Mary Tyler Moore in an inspired, hilarious and bitchy departure role) don't understand his quest and worry about everything from the kids getting mugged in San Diego to "What if he likes them better than us?"

Leoni is the inept adoption agency researcher who leads Stiller to the wrong parents twice, sending up red flags to her own neurosis.

It's the kind of movie that can never be perfectly funny because it hits too close to home at some point for everyone, but "Flirting With Disaster" is full of fabulous performances that make the absolute best of the material.

©1996 All Rights Reserved.





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