Serving Sara (2002) / Comedy-Romance


MPAA Rated: Rated PG-13 for crude humor, sexual content and language       Running Time: 99 min.

Cast: Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Vincent Pastore, Bruce Campbell, Cedric the Entertainer
Director:  Reginald Hudlin
Screenplay: Jay Scherick, David Ronn

 

 

SERVING SARA is a comedy that aims so low, you'd need a shovel to find the target.  While you're digging, you might as well toss in your tape or DVD of this painfully unfunny flick, because it not only wasted your time and money, it actually succeeds in being a waste of space as long as it's above ground.  

Elizabeth Hurley is the Sara of the title, married to a rich Texas rancher who is doing a little philandering on the side.  In fact, he serves her divorce papers, given to her by a process server named Joe (Matthew Perry), in order so he can marry a younger woman which is more favorable to him, since her daddy is a potential business partner.  With Texas having strict judges, Sara decides to turn the tables and get Joe to take back the papers and deliver them to hubby first, so that the courts will look more favorable to her, and she can get half his fortune, offering Joe 10% of whatever the settlement is.  However, Joe has competition in another ruthless process server, and wrenches get thrown in the works wherever he goes.   

Perhaps I was being a bit harsh, as the first half may not have been funny, but it was tolerable for the most part.  However, it seems someone didn't think there were enough laughs or interest, and thought to himself, "Hey...we have a hot babe in Elizabeth Hurley...let's try to get her as close to naked as possible just for the hell of it!   Oh, and I have another one...what this film really needs is for Matthew Perry to shove his whole arm up a bull's ass!  Yes, that is the recipe for a truly great time at the movies!"

From then on, what was a flimsily held together, sporadically interesting character-driven comedy falls completely apart, and mega-blunders occur at a pace so fast and furious, you wonder if the writers just didn't give up altogether and toss in what they thought people wanted to see, namely, toilet humor and sexual innuendo.  Of course, this isn't the film for that sort of thing, and as game as they play it, Hurley and Perry aren't the best actors to get when stopping so low for humor.

SERVING SARA is a mostly unfunny, and woefully misguided, romantic comedy which serves up scant laughs and even less chemistry between the two leads.  Serving a life sentence is about as appealing as watching SERVING SARA a second time, and if you're wise, you'll go through life without there ever being a first.

© 2003 Vince Leo