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Failure To Launch

More Zooey Deschanel, please.

By BROOKE HOLGERSON | March 7, 2006

2.0 Stars

FAILURE TO LAUNCH: McConaughey and Parker smile for the cameras.

The rumor is that Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker didn’t get along while making this film, and it shows: they’re in two different scenes whenever they’re together, smiling into a void. Parker plays a motivational expert not much removed from a hired escort who gets hired by McConaughey’s parents to get his 35-year-old ass out of their house. She does so by pretending to date him; that’s supposed to give him the confidence to start living his life, but since McConaughey’s slacker charm seems to work with the ladies, he poses a challenge. A pair of doofus buddies help him; she’s backed up by the fantastically deadpan Zooey Deschanel. Unfortunately, Zooey is saddled with the spazzy Justin Bartha as her love interest, and they generate only slightly more chemistry than the leads. If someone gave Deschanel her own comedy, now that could launch.

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