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The Ten

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

If you’re a believer in random humor, The Ten will reaffirm your faith. Directed by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and written by Wain and actor Ken Marino , the film is loosely based on the Ten Commandments. But if you’re expecting the movie to carry religious themes and moralistic lessons, think again. The commandments simply exist as a form of structure for what would otherwise become a disjointed, albeit hilarious, set of vignettes. There are ten individual stories which each use one commandment as a jumping off point. Despite the prominent presence of God’s rules, nothing is sacred in The Ten.

Paul Rudd (a producer on this film) is Jeff the narrator who, while standing in front of two huge stone tablets, introduces each story and simultaneously breaks a commandment of his own. He’s married to Gretchen (Famke Janssen), but having an affair with the younger Liz (Jessica Alba). Each story is interwoven and the extensive cast of familiar faces (Gretchen Mol, Justin Theroux, Oliver Platt, Adam Brody and Rob Corddry, to name a few) often pop up multiple times throughout.

Not all of the movie’s sections are successful, but the ones that work are divine. The story involving Ken Marino as Dr. Richie is a standout, mostly thanks to Marino ’s knack for finding comedy by playing it serious. He kills a patient “as a goof” then finds himself as an in-demand prison bitch. Yep, these segments are completely tasteless. But they’re downright funny, too.

As is the story where two rivaling neighbors (a perfectly deadpan Liev Schreiber and Joe Lo Truglio) try to outdo each other by buying a ridiculous number of CAT Scan machines, or the one where a white mother (Kerri Kenney-Silver) tries to convince her two black sons that their real father is Arnold Schwarzenegger. I told you it was random, but the film’s unpredictability is what makes it fun.

Parts that don’t work as well? There was an animated segment which dragged. And Winona Ryder as a woman with a puppet fetish was a little much. Kudos for letting Ryder head up the Thou Shall Not Steal commandment, though. It was a nice inside jab at her klepto past.

The special features on the DVD are a godsend. They act as the perfect complement to this outrageous comedy. It’s one of the rare instances where the features have substance and are just as amusing as the film itself. The audio commentary in particular is fantastic. It includes David Wain, Ken Marino , Paul Rudd , Wain’s parents, and a jazz bass player. It’s hysterical to hear ...