deliverymanRush To The Finish Line
 
Delivery Man
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Andrzej Blumenfeld, Simon Delaney, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Patten and Jack Reynor
Director: Ken Scott
Scriptwriters: Ken Scott and Martin Petit
Composer: Jon Brion
Touchstone/Walt Disney
Rating: PG 13 for themed material
Running Length: 110 minutes
 
It certainly didn't take Hollywood long to adapt the story of “Starbuck” to the screen with a name star---Vince Vaughn---playing David Wozniak. David was the biological father of over 500 children, fathered through a sperm bank, while David was in college. This was a fast way to earn money, over $20,000. However, due to a glitch in the record keeping of the sperm bank, years later, the children wanted to find their biological father and hence the “Starbuck” search. This being a code name for Wozniak. 
 
The French film starred Patrick Huard (whom I described as being Bradley Cooper twenty years from now) with an off-beat screen presence, gave us a David just trying to make it from hour to hour, as he worked  for the family business (meat, and he was a truck driver), be nice to his girlfriend, Valerie (a no-nonsense Julie LeBreton) and tell his troubles to his best friend, the lawyer played by a scene-stealing Antoine Bertrand.
 
Now, we have the American version with Vince Vaughn as David who alternates between sad, confused, and awkward. Anyone else in a scene with him, steals it, especially the young actors who portray his “children.” The story follows the first film virtually note for note, beginning with David as a person who is always slow in doing anything. The lawyer friend, portrayed by Chris Pratt, is the only bright spot here, married and  has children sleeping in their sandbox. David’s father, (Andrzej Blumenfeld), sighs as David goes from one failure to another. Enter a class action lawsuit to find “Starbuck” the children’s biological father, and the ensuing trial is about privacy and the clinic from years past, failed in this. The film brightens as David begins to shadow some of the children and become part of their lives, including a son who has a handicap and is institutionalized. Eventually, the film bogs down with a pregnancy and a rush to finish the film within an allotted time. I was disappointed.
 
“Delivery Time” has its big-hug moments with the children, and their day at the beach and David seeing the hospitalized son for the first time, but what could have been expanded for a few moments more, seems to be cut off . Acting in this remake is like following a level line to the end of the page. You know it is going to get there, and that's it, period. In the film, “Starbuck,” there are variations to the line that embellished the film and acting was more motion and not reciting lines, and not concentrating on the main star, but giving supporting actors time, also.
 
We learn little about the relationship between David and his brothers, and have a few moments more with David and his father. David and girlfriend (Cobie Smulders) have a past which we know nothing about and a pregnancy and that’s it, a side story of a few minutes. Vince Vaughn, while acting confused as a David with so many biological children, seems unsure of himself in this film. While “Starbuck,” didn't have to be remade, it could have had a spark of its own, but instead is a race to the finish line.
 
 
Copyright 2013 Marie Asner
 
For the French version, see “Starbuck” (subtitled) with Patrick Heard as David Wozniak, Julie LeBreton as Valerie and Igor Ovadis as David’s father. There is also a Bollywood version on DVD called “Vicky.”