Serving Sara (2002)
Grade: C-
Cast: Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Cedric The Entertainer, Vincent Pastore, Bruce Campbell
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence


Matthew Perry’s cinematic track record, to be blunt, sucks. I was one of the few who found himself to be a fan of “The Whole Nine Yards”, but I don’t think I’ve liked one of his movies outside of that one (which was, admittedly, a B-movie). What else have I seen? “Three To Tango” (1999), which wasn’t god-awful but was pretty bad. And then there’s “Fools Rush In” (1997), where the title may be referring to the writing process.

“Serving Sara” doesn’t help Perry in his attempts at success in the film industry. Is it because he always essentially plays Chandler Bing, his great character from TV’s “Friends”, and this film is no exception? I don’t think that’s the problem. I like Perry, and I don’t care if he plays the same part every time as long as it’s funny. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I know there is one, because one of the film’s funniest scenes has Perry anally inducing the ejaculation of a bull. Yeah. You heard me. Meanwhile, the funniest thing about the film is the following Larry King quote (which I get from an IMDb user comment) to Matthew Perry: “You’re going to be the next Tom Hanks…I'm predicting it, Perry. You're a lot like him, you have that air about you, you look the type, and I think you're going to get major roles and this one, "Serving Sara," is just another springboard on a great career.” That Larry King…

“Serving Sara” is an unsuccessful comedy, reluctantly agreeing to be occasionally amusing but vigorously refusing to do anything unpredictable or bold. Beneath all the clichés and contrivances, though, its biggest problem is the bizarre way it handles the occupation of its main character, Joe (Joe as in a really average character; Joe is played by Mr. Perry). He’s a process server, and the disturbing part of how this is handled is the fact that the job is portrayed as murderously dog-eat-dog. Joe has a huge competition with a co-worker of his, Tony (Vincent Pastore), and they literally seem ready to kill each other over their jobs…as process servers, of all things. Giving paperwork to people. Now, maybe I’m just dumb and this is how it works in real life. Or maybe I’m just slow and this is satire. But if it’s real life, then why don’t we hear more stories about it, and if it’s satire, then why are there so many dramatic moments? I thought I was watching the love child of “Goodfellas” and “Office Space”.

Anyway, the story involves Joe having to give some divorce papers to Sara Moore (Elizabeth Hurley, extremely beautiful but not too benefited in the comedic department, at least not in this movie). She then offers him $1 million to serve her husband the papers instead, therefore getting her more money in the eventual settlement. He agrees, and the audience is completely surprised when the two of them fall in love. Honestly.

The film is not a complete failure, despite its enormous predictability and the fact that the whole process server thing is handled weirdly. It at the very least has Elizabeth Hurley prancing around in a wardrobe of immense generosity towards the male members of the audience. Perry is also pretty funny; I couldn’t tell he was in rehab halfway through the shooting, because his acting was just as hilariously sarcastic as usual, without creatively stretching (unless one considers his occasional brief attempts at an accent to be a stretch). He gets good lines from time to time, but if I ever want a good line from Matthew Perry I might as well watch “Friends”, because it’s a great show, while this is a bad movie.

As mentioned earlier, there is a scene where Perry has to, through a series of cover-ups/mistaken identity problems, stick his hand into the rectum of a bull and masturbate it. The definitive sign that Hurley’s character is truly in love with Perry’s is when, in mid-cow-masturbation, she gives him a playful shove, leaving Perry up to his shoulder in cow ass. The scene is not terribly original (it is the PG-13 equivalent of the ever-popular ejaculation joke I speak of in my equally indifferent “Van Wilder” review, plus an animal), but Perry’s reactions are pretty good, and it proves that even immediately after exiting a rehab clinic his comic timing is acute. Now, I’m predicting this, Perry: you could be the next Tom Hanks if you were better at picking your scripts.


-Alex, September 2002