Title: Ted
Year: 2012
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Writer: Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin
and Wellesley Wild (written by) and Seth MacFarlane (story)
Runtime: 106min
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis,
Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi
Produc.: Universal Pictures, Media
Rights Capital, Fuzzy Door Productions, Bluegrass Films, Smart Entertainment
Budget: $50 million approx.
In Ted, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg)
is a lonely and unpopular boy, that on Christmas morning receives a teddy
bear (Seth MacFarlane). That night John makes a wish, with no idea that this
will be fulfilled.
At the age of 8, John (Bretton Manley) has
troubles to relate with others. Every time he tries to approach other children,
they reject him, making him someone lonely. Christmas arrives and with it, a
special gift. A stuffed bear.
No other gift could be more
harmless. However, when the bear becomes a substitute for other children, the
matter becomes quite different. A bear that only says "Teddy loves
you" is now his only friend, and its affectionate recorded message,
something that makes John feel appreciated.
If already, in itself, the situation
was not good, John makes at night a wish, with similar characteristics to the one of Pinocchio´s Geppetto. Of course, who would have thought that it would come
true.
MacFarlane passes, in just a few minutes,
to show how the new Ted, first frightens John parents, then becomes a public
figure, and finally ends up being just another citizen, only hairy and lower.
If something the director has not intended, is that this bear called the
attention.
Shown the title and the initial
credits, MacFarlane jumps directly to what has come to be, nowadays, the
buddies relationship between man and bear. Already in the first shots we
distinguish in the duo, clear signs of decay. 27 years after the so innocents
John and Ted met, his plush friend is now a disordered, a foul-mouthed and an
avid drug´s lover. Meanwhile, John has had some progress. He talks with his
officemates, besides having his girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis).
As a determining element for the
film to fail, is that between conflicts there are too long scenes, and which
end up not being functional. About this, the only thing I can say is that, to
see it and understand it, it is required patience. Evidently, the director not
always sought to give us information, but sometimes he simply expected the
public to just laugh.
When one has already psyched about
what has got in front, will notice that John is a character, to whom to cling to
his childhood doll has hindered him to mature. With Ted at his side, for John
it is impossible to maintain a responsible bond with the woman he loves, to
still continue stalled.
There is also a sub plot about a
father (Giovanni Ribisi) who wants to give his son (Aedin Mincks) that bear
that he never got, after seeing it on TV, as a kid. With the inclusion of
these two characters, we are given a little more suspense, with a kidnapping
and a car chase, but above all, that for a brief moment we have another
persepctive about suffered childhood.
Beyond its excessive length and some
forced situations, Ted anyhow has a resolution that gives us to think, besides
having some wise moves. To see how this plush, that previously distanced John
from Lori, is at last what unites them, has no waste.
Unfortunatelly, globally speaking, MacFarlane´s
lack of seriousness as a librettist is clearly visible, in a film that has too
many minutes to be skipped.
My rating:
4/10
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