Film

The Ten (2007)

Director: David Wain

Synopsis

From the makers of The State, Wet Hot American Summer and Stella, ten goofball sketches nominally inspired by the Ten Commandments. In one, Winona Ryder falls in love with a ventriloquist's dummy; in another, Gretchen Mol has an affair with Jesus (Justin Theroux).

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Taking the Ten Commandments as a very loose inspiration, screenwriters Wain and Marino have generated a series of short skits, sometimes hilarious, sometimes tasteless, sometimes both. Given that both men used to write for The State, and that Wain has since written for Stella, it should come as no surprise that the material often feels like the stuff of a cable comedy show. And like those shows, The Ten is hit and miss. For our money, the ratio gets thrown off in the last four or five commandments, but it could just be that exhaustion sets in.

Funny: Brody gets planted in the ground in a parachute-jump gone bad and becomes an overnight celebrity; Ryder falls in love with a ventriloquist’s dummy; while on vacation in Mexico, Mol has a fling with a guy named Jesus (Theroux) who turns out to be, you know, Jesus. Less funny: Prisoner Marino’s fidelity to his anal-raping cellmate is tested when a new prisoner wants to rape Marino; neighbors compete over who owns the most CAT-scan machines; an animated rhino learns about lying.

The ten skits are held together by an emcee (Rudd) whose personal life intrudes on his intros of the various segments. Rudd’s a funny guy, but this material never works. We’d have enjoyed it more without Rudd’s bits, and even more on cable, where we could use the misfires for bathroom breaks.