Duplex by Larry Doyle - 8 out of 10

Duplex by Larry Doyle
8 out of 10


Although a sometimes charming comedy, Duplex is not much more than just the average feature that we seem to see on our screens these days.

Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore and Elileen Essell are a pleasure to watch, but their efforts do not bring extasy.
Alex Rose aka Ben Stiller and Nancy Kendricks aka Drew Barrymore are looking for an apartment in New York, to fit their needs and desires.

The duplex they find seems to be nec plus ultra.
It has an old lady occupying the upper floor, but as the real estate agent underlined- when he was bent on selling the place, for later he would change his position with 180 degrees- she has the age when she can expire at any moment.

An she is so sweet...
Actually, this is where she catch is.

She becomes the equivalent of the boy in Home Alone.
At that age, he is surely vulnerable, we think.

In practice, the woman becomes a nightmare for Alex, who is a writer and tries to explain to her...

'Look, this is my office...I work at home and hence, between 9 and 6 it is like I am at the office...I am unavailable '

Words to that effect.
To a large extent, I sympathize with the old lady, not because I am kind, humane or whatever, but just on account of her parrot.

I have a green and red macaw, Puccini, and a blue and gold one, Balzac.
Alas, the bird the old woman had was not in great shape.

There is a sort of humorous scene involving the macaw to some extent, albeit of dubious quality.
The writer tries to work on the sink of the old woman, for the help she had used so far resulted in huge expenses for the landlords, which is now the unhappy couple.

As it always happens in these circumstances, the waste and muck accumulated in the sink, falls down on the face of the one fixing the problem...Alex.

As Nancy is watching this from close, she vomits.
Mrs. Connelly says:

'My bird likes regurgitated food anyway...'

As you have probably seen on The Discovery or other channels, parent birds feed their young ones with what they catch and then regurgitate.

Duplex is comical at times, but often it can be annoying, as in the instance when the laptop of the writer falls in the fireplace and as if that was not enough, it lands under the wheels of a passing truck...

I mean come on!