Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan play a fighting gay couple forced to take in the Coogan character’s grandson in Ideal Home, a film that’s ultimately enjoyable because Rudd and Coogan take it above its silly sitcom tropes—and provide genuine laughs and real emotion.
Paul (Rudd) and Erasmus (Coogan) work on a cooking show together and live an upscale life. However, the two need to become parents overnight when Angel (Jack Gore) shows up at their door after his dad gets busted.
There are moments in this movie—registering the kid for school, visiting dad in jail, etc.—that feel like a thousand movies before it, and director Andrew Fleming throws in too many plugs for Taco Bell. These problems aside, Rudd and Coogan had me laughing consistently, and loudly, throughout the movie.
This really is a movie that could’ve been awful, but Rudd and Coogan don’t just salvage it; they actually make it worth recommending. Gore is ho-hum the precocious kid, which slows things down at times, but Jake McDorman is hilarious in his few onscreen moments as the dad. (McDorman and Coogan have a conversation in this movie that stands as one of the summer’s funniest film moments.)
The ever-reliable Rudd excels in almost every moment he’s onscreen—even when the writing isn’t up to snuff. Overall, Ideal Home provides a good pile of chuckles, and sometimes that’s all a comedy really needs to do.
Ideal Home is available via online sources including iTunes and Amazon.com.
Two straight actors playing gay characters for laughs just doesn’t wash. Especially in 2018.