Why Him is a romantic comedy starring James Franco and Bryan Cranston that details the story of Ned Fleming (Cranston) and his family spending Christmas in California to meet his daughter's boyfriend Laird Mayhew (Franco). In meeting Mayhew, Fleming is appalled by Mayhew's blunt and vulgar personality and plans to sabotage Mayhew's relationship with his daughter. Fleming's feelings of resentment are accelerated when Laird asks for Ned's blessing to propose to his daughter, and the rest of the holiday becomes a race for Laird to try and win Ned's blessing, and hijinks ensue.
I would say that on an A+ to F- scale I would give this movie a B. There are a lot of things that this movie does well. It's a movie that uses vulgarity as a vehicle for shock value comedy and it does so well, as I was laughing out loud throughout the film. Additionally, throughout the film there are instances that set up jokes for later in the film that become even funnier as they happen in dramatic and sometimes disgusting fashion. For even more laughs, the writers contrast Fleming's in between the white lines style with Mayhew's over the top style that produces the classic comedy of drastic lifestyle transition. Besides comedy, this film also produces a few moments of sincere feeling by showing Fleming as a man who truly wants his daughter to be happy and for his family to have a good and happy life.
With all this being said, there are some lapses that this film has. Although this is not an Adam Sandler film, it has the same famous lack of a real structured plotline that make the jokes the center of the show. Therefore, when some of these jokes fail, it creates dead space. Some of the jokes in the movie seem as though someone wrote it up on the spot and are not funny, creating awkward points in the film. Additionally, since much of the comedy is centered around lots of cursing, if you're not a fan of that kind of comedy the film doesn't have a lot more to offer.
If given the chance I would see this film again as I found it to be quite funny. However, I would likely wait to see it again until it came out on DVD as it isn't a movie that I feel as though I need to see again in the theater. In conclusion, Why Him is absolutely worth seeing (especially in the theater) if vulgarity and hijinks are your kind of comedy.
