Ted – review
Mark Wahlberg and his ‘friend for life’ in Ted
When you take the premise of this film at face value – a teddy bear comes alive when his owner is a boy and now the boy is a fully-grown man, teddy gets in the way of the progression of the man’s relationship with his girlfriend – it seems gimmicky at best, especially as a laddish, toilet-humour affair.
This concept could have been misjudged by a lot of writers/directors, but with Seth (Family Guy) MacFarlane as the brains behind the bromance between a boozy bear and an underachiever named John Bennett (Wahlberg), you are guaranteed laughs and quirky asides. The big question is whether the creator of two of the funniest and most successful cartoon series’ could have the same impact on the big screen with a feature-length non-animated comedy (the bear is done with impressive CGI).
John made a wish as a child that his beloved teddy would come to life and be his friend for real. Miraculously, the wish was granted by someone or something out there and the world was stunned. For a time Ted is a worldwide smash, as he hangs out with celebrity stars and appears on all the big chat shows in America. John is swept along with Ted’s fame and the two are bonded best buddies for life.
The action fast-forwards to the present day, over twenty years on and John is still living, chilling out and partying with his trusted teddy. The problem is that Ted will always be a teddy, without responsibilities and John is now a man who is finally made to realise that he does have responsibilities, not only to himself and to his job, but importantly the love of his life; the beautiful Lori (Kunis).
John and Lori’s four-year anniversary is approaching and the looming day gets John thinking about the potential for Lori to be expecting a ring on her finger by the end of the upcoming night. The fact that he doesn’t feel ready for this step or have the capital for a quality engagement ring starts to put pressure on the relationship.
He is in a job that know he knows is could probably do better than, but despite this he is in line for a potential promotion in the not-too-distant-future – as his immediate superior is looking to step up – but he is jeopardising this and his relationship by spending too much time goofing off and getting stoned with Ted. Lori on the other hand, as well as being an absolute stunner, is a bit of a high flyer and is clearly getting frustrated.
Performed by the man of many voices (including Family Guy’s Peter Griffin, Stewie and Brian and American Dad’s Stan and Roger), MacFarlane takes the lead role of Ted, who is unsurprisingly a fan of drinking beer, getting stoned, fart jokes and dry sarcasm. Although Lori likes Ted and finds much of John’s immature humour amusing, she also wants a pledge or statement of commitment and inevitably she gives John the ultimatum: either Ted moves out or it is not going to work out between them. John has to face up to reality and make some grown up choices, he maybe never realised he’d have to make. Unfortunately, he has an uncanny habit of screwing things up.
This stoner, bromance and social dilemma combo seems to be slightly too familiar though, after such success in recent years of Judd Adapow’s canon of work and other similar features (think Knocked Up, Superbad, Step Brothers). So, MacFarlane needs to have something extra up with comic sleeves and fortunately he does.
He throws in a few subplots, including a crazed stalker (Ribisi) and his molly-coddled son (Mincks), large helpings of nods to the 80’s, both vocally and visually – including a cameo from Sam J. Jones (Flash Gordon) as himself – and Lori’s over-flirty boss (played to sleazeball-perfection by Joel McHale). We also get the magical, dulcet tones of Patrick Stewart as our playful narrator.
There are times when you wish Macfarlane had left Family Guy at the door though, especially when he anchors many of the comedic devices so beautifully (and repetitively) used in the show, not least the epic/slapstick fight scenes. And with obvious similarities in character between Ted and Brian from Family Guy (and shades of Peter), it is sometimes hard to shake the images of the often-inebriated dog. However, for MacFarlane’s first shot at the silver screen, you can excuse him and with Ted he has clearly had a blast, which thankfully we as the viewer do too.
Ted (15)
Directed by Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh, Patrick Stewart, Sam J. Jones, Aedin Mincks.
Running time: 106 minutes
Ted is showing at the Hackney Picturehouse throughout August.