Duplex had the ingredients to work much better: Ben Stiller in one of those roles as an ordinary man slowly losing his mind, Drew Barrymore as part of a young couple trapped in a real-estate nightmare, an unbearable old lady upstairs and Danny DeVito directing a black comedy about frustration, coexistence and the secret desire to get rid of the person ruining your life. On paper, the idea is funny. The problem is that the film almost never finds the comedy in it. I have always liked Ben Stiller, and he usually makes me laugh, especially when he plays overwhelmed, hysterical characters who are unable to control a situation that gradually consumes them. Here he has moments where you can see his talent for progressive desperation: the nervous look, the fake patience, the face of a reasonable man about to explode. He understands this kind of physical and emotional comedy very well. But not even Stiller can lift a film that gets trapped in one joke repeated too many times. The premise is clear: a couple buys their dream home, but an old lady living upstairs turns that happiness into torture. The conflict should grow into something increasingly dark, uncomfortable and funny. But Duplex stays in a strange middle ground: it is not cruel enough to be a great black comedy, not sharp enough to be a good farce and not funny enough to justify its repetition. There is some bite, yes, but not enough precision. Drew Barrymore, moreover, has never especially worked for me, and this film does not change that impression. She has charm and an agreeable presence, but her character does not add much here. The couple never quite has the chemistry needed to make us fully invested in their desperation, and the film needs us to understand their frustration for the escalation to work. If you do not fully believe in them, everything becomes mechanical. The main problem is that Duplex feels like a funny idea stretched into a feature film. The old lady is annoying, they get desperate, they try to fix it, everything goes wrong, and then it starts again. At first it can be mildly amusing, but the lack of real development soon becomes obvious. The gags pile up without truly growing, the story becomes repetitive and the film ends up feeling longer than it actually is. The tone also fails. A story like this needed more darkness, something more poisonous, closer to an absurd and cruel domestic war. But the film stays halfway. It wants to be mischievous, but it does not fully dare. It wants to be uncomfortable, but never quite gets there. It wants to be funny, but too often it is simply tiresome. Still, it is not a total disaster. Ben Stiller has skill, there are a few isolated moments with a nasty edge, and the premise still has potential. But it is one of those films where you end up thinking the actors deserved better material. Duplex did not make me laugh, and in a comedy that matters too much. It is watchable, but almost immediately forgettable.

Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore star in the Danny DeVito black comedy Duplex. When the “sweet” old lady in their duplex turns out to be anything but, the new owners find themselves being driven to murder. The plot is pretty formulaic and includes a lot of the standard annoying neighbor tropes; playing the TV too loud, unruly pets, etc. And the characters aren’t really all that sympathetic. But, Stiller does a good job with the physical comedy and there are some rather fun skits. Yet while it’s entertaining at times, Duplex doesn’t get the tone right and ends up being rather ugly and mean spirited.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ - I like this film 10❤- Masterpiece 💯 9❤- Excellent 8❤ - Amazing 👌 7❤- Great 🌞 6❤ - Good 👍 5❤ - Average 🤕 4❤ - Bad but watchable :octagonal_sign: 3❤ - Bad 😭 2😡- Awful :face_vomiting: 1:face_with_symbols_over_mouth: - Bull Shit

Gross, disturbing and not funny at all.

Very dark humour. Predictable plot line.