Failure to Launch(2006)

Plot Summary

• Tripp (Matthew McConaughey), a 35-year-old man, is still living with his parents Al (Terry Bradshaw) and Sue (Kathy Bates) in Baltimore. Tripp's best friends Demo (Bradley Cooper) and Ace (Justin Bartha) are also still living in their parents' homes and seem proud of it. Tripp has a number of meaningless romances; when he gets sick of the women, he scares them off by inviting them to "his place," and after seeing he lives at his parent's home, they promptly dump him, leaving him free again. Tripp has a great life with a roof over his head and all the chores performed by his mother, from making his bed to vacuuming his room, and ironing his clothes. Tripp even gets breakfast served to him every day by his mother. Ace says that Tripp is afraid of real love.Al and Sue are fascinated when their friends, whose adult son recently moved away from home, reveal that they hired an expert to get their son to move out. Al and Sue believe that they were good parents and now they are supposed to be done. The expert is Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker), who believes that men continue to live at home because they have low self-esteem. She calls it the "Failure to Launch". Her approach is to establish a relationship with the man to build his confidence (by helping her through an emotional crisis) and transfer his attachment from his parents to her. She asks Al and Sue to make things difficult for Tripp at home by assigning him more chores and by refusing to do his work around the house. She also promises them that she never sleeps with her clients, and she needs to keep Tripp "motivated". Sue starts off by getting Tripp to buy groceries, doing laundry and cleaning his own bathroom.Al and Sue arrange for Paula and Tripp to run into each other, when they go furniture shopping. Paula is drop dead gorgeous and Tripp instantly notices her as she walks into the store. Paula says that she comes to the store daily for 20 minutes to relax on the comfort chairs and has an "arrangement" with the guards who allow her in exchange for coffee. Paula lives with her roommate Kit. A running theme in the movie is a mockingbird outside of Kit's home that sings at all times of the day, driving Kit crazy. Nothing she tries is able to get rid of the mockingbird.Paula and Tripp have their first date as lunch on a sailboat. But turns out Tripp didn't own the boat himself and is only a broker. The owner of the boat turns up unexpectedly and interrupts their date. Paula helps Tripp by pretending to be a buyer. However, upon meeting Tripp, she finds that he does not fit any of her previous profiles, having normal social skills and no problems with self-esteem. He also has a good job which he enjoys. Paula creates an emotionally vulnerable situation for herself, when she pretends her dog died and has Tripp to be present to support her. Thats part of her "process". Tripp responds by taking her to paintball with Demo and Ace. Paula brings Kit along with her. The guys are impressed with Paula when she helps them win a paintball match with a team that came in third at the national paintball tournament.Ace has a crush on Kit (Zooey Deschanel). But Kit has difficulty in choosing between Ace (a software writer) and Demo (sexy, but just got fired from Kinko's). Paula gets "the nod" from Tripp's friends and the next day she even allows Tripp to teach her sailing. Tripp is cruising through her steps. Tripp confides in Paula that he would like to own an old wooden boat, which would make him feel like he is part of something. Paula ends up kissing Tripp passionately.Kit points out to Paula that she is having fun with Tripp. Paula believes that she has Tripp and that he is good to move out, while Tripp tells his friends that he is ready to break up with Paula. After an awkward encounter with his parents (when Tripp takes Paula home), Paula thwarts his attempt to dump her (Sue tells Paula secretly that the only reason Tripp brings girls over to their house is because he is getting ready to dump them) and responds by having sex with him, all the while developing real feelings for him. She and Tripp find themselves sailing unfamiliar waters and confide in their friends. Tripp says that the sex was fantastic. While Paula says that the rules are hers and she can change them if she wants.Kit even goes to the extent to trying to buy a shotgun to kill the mockingbird. The gun salesman Jim (Rob Corddry) refuses to sell Kit the gun, as mockingbirds are protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty act and killing one is a crime. Paula's vocation exasperates her roommate Kit, who believes that Paula took the job because she once had her heart broken by a man who lived with his parents. Ace finds Paula working another "client" at a cafe and blackmails her to set him up with Kit. although Kit is more attracted to Demo, she and Ace wind up falling in love.Paula, on the other hand, is shocked when she finds out (when Ace and Demo tell him as they know what she is doing and support her overall goal) why Tripp lives at home: his life collapsed when his fiance suddenly died, and his family has been his source of solace ever since.Demo in turn reveals all to Tripp that Paula is a professional interventionist, but he also says that Paula is the right girl for him, and he should sort things out with her. Tripp angrily confronts his parents and breaks up with Paula. Wracked with guilt, Paula refunds Al's and Sue's money. After an awkward confrontation, Tripp manages to forgive his parents, but he cannot forgive Paula for manipulating him.Tripp's parents and friends devise a plan to reconcile the two lovers. Paula is planning to move to Colorado and Tripp is moping around at the docks for 2 weeks, having moved out of his parent's house. They tie up and gag Tripp and lock him and Paula together in a room. Paula pours her heart out to him, and he finally forgives her.The film ends with Al and Sue in their empty nest, happily singing "Hit the Road, Tripp," fading into the closing credits playing the Ray Charles song, and Tripp sailing away with Paula on his newly purchased boat.

Storyline

• At 35, Tripp has an interesting job, a hip car, a passion for sailing, and a great house - trouble is, he lives with his parents. They want him out, so they hire Paula, an "interventionist," who has a formula in these cases: chance encounter, get him to ask her out, involve him in a trauma, meet his friends and get their nod, delay sex, have him teach her something, then launch him. It's worked up to now, but this gets complicated when Tripp thinks she's getting too serious and one of his pals is attracted to Paula's deadpan, semi-alcoholic roommate, who's plagued by a mockingbird. Too many secrets may scrub the launch, and what if Paula really likes him? Who can intervene then? — Tripp is a 35-year-old bachelor still living with his parents, Al and Sue. Al and Sue hire professional interventionist Paula to play Tripp's girlfriend and seductively manipulative him into moving out of their home, but Paula and Tripp fall in love for each other, and when Tripp's best friends, Ace and Demo, accidentally discover the truth about Paula, one uses it to blackmail her for a date while the other spills the beans to Tripp, spoiling both the intervention and their budding, genuine relationship. To fix the situation, Tripp's and Paula's friends converge to plot a manipulative intervention of their own. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil