Flypaper

Flypaper is an unconventional 'whodunit' in the form of a screwball comedy. It starts off with a guy named Tripp (played by Patrick Dempsey) who walks into a bank to get some change and ends up in the middle of two simultaneous bank robberies, executed by two different gangs, one of whom highly professional, the other one very much the opposite. What follows is an idiotic muddle of story lines and plot twists, which overall is pretty funny and at times even hilarious.

Flypaper's biggest asset is its wild array of stereotype characters, which certainly doesn't always work out, but in this case does so very well, mostly because of the clever writing. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the way the characters are played out against one another is really the stuff of great comedies. One of the best characters is one called Peanut Butter, played by the great Tim Blake Nelson, who, together with his buddy Jelly forms a duo of laughably amateurish hillbilly bank robbers. The other team of (professional) bank robbers is set together of another great group of stereotypes, namely The Black Guy, The Jewish Guy and The British Guy (not their actual character names, just pointing it out), which in itself sounds like a "three guys walk into a bar" joke, and it actually works out funnier than you might expect. And then there's the group of hostages (all bank employees), all with their own crazy little character traits, paranoia and strange ulterior motives, more afraid of each other than of the people robbing their bank.

I must admit, I didn't have great expectations for Patrick Dempsey, but he pleasantly surprised me with his knack for timing and delivery. His character is a completely hyper-active genius, brilliant with numbers and facts, dead-set on solving the strange mysteries that keep piling up in the bank as the robberies go on, and Mr Dempsey plays his role convincingly. Who knew McDreamy had a serious sense of humour. Ashley Judd is a reliable actress, and she ca...