Ted - Review

For the first feature-length movie from one of the biggest heads in American television today, TED is certainly a worthwhile effort to start with. Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, continues his distinctive auteurship and signature comedic stylings to film, all the while finally reveling in joy that he can now include a few jokes that curb stomp political correctness into the ground. It is a funny little jaunt, able to kill an afternoon or television time, but nothing really substantial beyond repeating lines and jokes among your bros. Not even the plethora of 80's callbacks could save the picture from simply being good, not grand.


The titled character is a heavenly bestowed teddy bear, given a real life and a brief fling with celebrity status thanks to a wholesome little Boston boy on Christmas night in 1985. Shoot straight to present day, where the now degenerate but still earnest bear is the forever third wheel for the grown up John (Mark Whalberg) and his girlfriend for four years, Lori (Mila Kunis). Despite getting him a regular day job and his own living apartment, John is unable to remove himself and his prolonged arrested development from the talking plush toy. The basic romantic comedy formula, complete with extra broad strokes of MacFarlane-type humor and taste in big band music, fills out the rest of the 106 minute running time without any fear of surprises. All except for the odd, distracting thriller third act that comes into play with a hamming it up Giovanni Ribisi and a chase around Fenway Park.


Though expecting it to come into play, the Ribisi element is so completely random to take in. This coming from a film that features a big concert scene with a cameoing Norah Jones and multiple references to a certain 80's sci-fi film and its great score by Queen. MacFarlane tries so hard to make it work, going so far as to have Ribisi pelvic thrust his way through Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now". But despite a few good zingers to be heard, the dark twist and its accompanying sentimental coup de grâce ranged false, long and hard.


Though I am harsh with its conclusion, not to mention spoiling a few of its surprises, the film is often very funny and has some naturalistic characterization. Mark Whalberg and Mila Kunis have great chemistry with each other and are given some nice depth to their characters, instead of being another clear-cut example of lazy man-child and irritated hot chick respectively. How shocking that I actually wanted to see them find a way to better terms with each other by the end of the film. Seth MacFarlane, not content with just being a writer, director, and producer, voices the lovable Ted who is in fact lovable, despite his affinity for prostitutes and strong weed. Ted is obviously the heart of the story, yet is never overbearing or annoying to watch. As he himself says in a key moment, the character is not supposed to progress into adulthood, only to remain in his stuffed animal ways and watch others moving along in life, unless they are as bone-headed as John is.


TED, like any good comedy, is subjective to how effective it truly is. For myself, it was a nice breeze in the theaters and achieves quotable status. It will certainly fall through the cracks of 2012, unless there is an absolute barren landscape of comedies this year, but it shouldn't be dismissed and truly forgotten about. When there is some lame and awful things still playing in your local multiplexes, you can't really go wrong with a talking teddy bear pic.



FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5