You, Me and Dupree

What’s the Story?

Feeling left out when his best friend Carl (Matt Dillon) marries the beautiful and sensible elementary school teacher Molly (Kate Hudson), Dupree (Owen Wilson) moves in, "for a week at the most." He sleeps in the nude on their couch, eats their food, leaves messes, and generally expects the newlyweds to play his parents, while he hangs out with the neighborhood kids and doesn't try very hard to get a job. While Molly resents Dupree's childishness (and the fact that Carl behaves badly around him), she soon comes to see him as a sensitive spirit in need of looking after. By the same token, Carl is tired of Dupree's unreliability, but admires his "free spirit." Molly's father Mr. Thompson (Michael Douglas) is Carl's primary adversary. Working for Thompson's real estate development company, Carl feels belittled and emasculated. Molly and Carl head toward conflict that will be resolved by the "intuitive" Dupree.

Is It Any Good?

Obnoxious and monotonous, YOU, ME AND DUPREE is yet another movie making fun of immature men and the women who put up with them. Following the path laid down by the R-rated hits, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers, this movie uses sexual activity and wild physical violence (as well as some crude language) to showcase Dupree's disruptiveness.

Painfully formulaic, this is one of those movies where, if only the couple would have one honest conversation within the first half-hour, the rest of it would be unnecessary. Dupree looks blissful compared to his married friends, who feel hemmed in and humiliated. Lack of logic typifies the film, as Molly comes to care for Dupree and Dupree provides earnest life lessons for Carl. In the end, Dupree pronounces the moral about "believing in yourself," first for Molly's young students, and then for Carl, drunk and depressed in a bar. While it might seem sweet, it also feels cynical.