Delivery Man stars Vince Vaughn as David, a warm-hearted guy whose life is a mess. He’s unreliable, always late, and basically a lovable loser who at one time had a steady gig as a fertility clinic donor. But the clinic overused his sperm, resulting in him being the biological father of 533 children, of whom 142 have filed a lawsuit to reveal his identity. Thus sends David on personal comedic journey to help his kids without them knowing who he is.
This is a faithful re-telling of Starbuck, the popular 2011 French-Canadian comedy directed and co-written by Ken Scott, who duplicates his services for the American version. And thanks to some minor changes and good performances led by Vaughn, Delivery Man stands on its own two feet, but also stays true to the original film. It leaves the audience with more than a few good feelings with its heartfelt tendencies.
David has had enough of being a loser when he finds out his girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders), is pregnant. He decides to get his life together and step up, but that’s when life decides to throw David a curve ball. He soon learns of him being the biological father of 533 children, and the kids want to know who he is. His best friend and lawyer, Brett (Chris Pratt), persuades him not to look for the kids or to have any contact with them. But David does the opposite and soon starts finding and befriending his kids no matter what the cost may be to him and his family.
Now what works in the movie is the cast. Vaughn has made a pretty good career of being the likable douche that gets into all kinds of trouble before learning a lesson to make himself a better person. And he does that here again, but what makes this different than some of his other roles is that he is generally a good person who has made a lot of mistakes. Vaughn is really good at showing us that. As we follow him along his journey, we start to see the change in him as he meets his kids. He becomes a better man, and he will stop at nothing to keep going.
The interaction between him and his father, Andrzej Blumenfeld, and his brother, Bobby Moynihan, are great. They all have a special bond, but they know that David is a loser and accept that because they know how good of a man he can be. The relationship between Vaughn and Pratt is damn funny. Every scene they share is laugh out loud. There must be hours of scenes that just kept going because these two guys are great at improve comedy, the gag reel for the BluRay will be worth the price alone. And the love that Vaughn and Cobie Smulders’s character have is believable enough for the movie. Unfortunately, she isn’t given the same opportunity to show off her comedic chops as the rest of the cast, but the movie isn’t really about their relationship. It’s more about him and his family and the new family of kids he just got.
He has fathered 533 kids, but the flick only deals with 142. Out of those 142, we only get to spend time with about 20. There are big scenes where there is hundreds of people, but for time we only need to get to know about 20. But the ones we do get to know are great characters no matter how little their screen time may be. David makes sure he gets to spend as much time as he can with the kids he finds and helps. Each of his kids have their own little story with a beginning an ending, which is nice to have closure for each character we spend time with. All this just made the story a little richer.
Now there are a few negatives in the flick that are so blaringly obvious, it’s hard to understand why no one said anything during the filming. One thing is these 142 kids want to know who their father is, which is fine, but its never once addressed why. There are some little conversations here and there that could be some sort of explanation, but it’s over so fast that it never really sticks. It also implies that David at one point wasn’t such a nice guy, having some loan shark ties, which never once was explained. Some aspects of the movie feel like the script needed one or two more passes to fix little issues, but no one did. Now these issues are staring you right in the face the whole time, and they may force a plot hole here and there, but they never take away from the enjoyment of the movie, just makes you think more than you should for a comedy.
Overall this is a funny, well-acted, heart warming, sweet movie. It’s the right kind of flick that you can watch around the holidays to give you all the right feels. You leave the theater feeling good and you didn’t waste your cash. Hell, you might even tear up a bit now and then, and there’s nothing wrong with that. So enjoy.