the dilemma

this wasnt quite what i expected!  knowing the two guys invloved, vince vaughn and kevin james, i was expecting this to be a pretty silly comedy.  turns out, its a pretty dark character driven story about fidelity and friendship.  the premise follows two friends as they work together.  as one is planning on proposing to his girlfriend, he discovers that the other friend's wife has been cheating on him.  this can go a few different ways, but what surprised me was the fact that they didnt go for the more comedic route, but rather wrestled with the darker truth of marriage and how some marriages arent perfect.  this felt like new territory for a movie, especially a comedy staring vaughn and james!  though i was impressed with the handling of the subject matter, i was still frustrated by how it played out.  at times these two characters acted like real people living in a challenging world filled with shades of grey, but other times they acted like really stupid characters who would make terrible choices just to keep the struggles going.  for example, vaughn's character really struggles with what he should do, should he tell his friend about what is going on, even if it hurts their friendship and their work?  his responses at times are thoughtful and organic- like someone who would actually struggle with this choice in real life.  but then other times he acts in a way that is not even remotely logical, and in fact goes against everything we know about the character!  are we really supposed to believe that he would be so emphatic about being honest with his friend while telling lie after lie after lie to his girlfriend?  especially when it would be 1000 times easier to just tell her the truth?  there is no reason for this story to have so many difficult problems, other than that it helps the story.  not based on what would actually happen, but rather the characters act in a way that keeps the 'kooky high jinx' going for a little while longer.  too bad, there are really moments in this movie of greatness, but it too often gets caught in its own formulaic nonsense.