ARTS INDEX
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Screenplay: MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Wellesley Wild from MacFarlane story
Cast: Mark Wahlberg (The Other Guys), Mila Kunis (Black Swan)
Rating: R
Although it's a stretch to call anything by the Family Guy creator "cute," director/writer Seth MacFarlane has endearing moments in his comedy Ted. However, the preponderance of jokes here are raw, rude, scatological, and outrageous, as is MacFarlane's trademark.
He is the voice of teddy bear Ted, brought to life when little John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) wishes life into him. Now at 35, John and Ted are best friends sharing life with John's girl, Lori (Mila Kunis). The laughs are plenty, even clean ones like this:
Ted: [dressed in a suit and tie] I look stupid.
John: No, you don't, you look dapper.
Ted: John, I look like something you give to your kid when you tell 'em Grandma died.
Then the romantic tension sets in and the humor vanishes while John and Lori work out the expected problem of the teddy bear buddy occupying John's time and imagination instead of Lori. While some of this convention simply has to be followed in rom-com's, the predictability compromises some of John and Ted's fast-paced, working-class Boston dialogue that otherwise carries the show.
Suffice it to say, all will turn out right, even if the stuffing gets knocked out of Ted because love wins the day for the humans and, come to think of it, for the bears as well.
© Copyright 2013, WCBE
