Movie Review: Serving Sara

Serving Sara

After having endured a difficult couple of months, I've been looking for a movie that could make me laugh for a couple of hours. In Serving Sara, I got just what I needed.

Matthew Perry, most well known as one of the TV Friends, is cast in the role of Joe Tyler. Joe doesn't particularly love his job, but he's good at it. He's a process server, meaning pretty much no one else enjoys it when he does his job, either. Elizabeth Hurley is Sara Moore, a beautiful woman happily married to Gordon, a handsome - and wealthy - Texan, played by Bruce Campbell. When Joe surprises Sara by serving her with divorce papers, she is first devastated but quickly moves on to really, really angry. And in her anger, she offers to pay Joe to help her get revenge on Gordon. As the two put their plans in action, they're second-guessed by Joe's co-worker, Tony, ably given life by actor Vincent Pastore. Joe's boss (a wonderful black actor whose name I was unable to catch in the credits or find on the movie's website, and who gives a terrific comedic performance here) does his best to direct the action from his New York office, but is endlessly frustrated as Joe, Sara, Tony, and Gordon play what is almost a classic game of hide and seek that stretches up and down the eastern seaboard into into the heart of Texas.

Matthew Perry's style as an actor is brilliantly suited to the character of Joe Tyler, a wisecracking cynic who has private dreams he can't quite give up. Elizabeth Hurley is also good, showing that she has more range than just pretty or pouty and displaying a good comedic talent. The supporting cast more than matches the quality of the leads, and the script is very funny (there are some truly brilliant puns uttered by Perry) as are many of the circumstances the characters find themselves in. If you see Serving Sara, you won't be saving the whales or curing cancer, but you will laugh. And that's often worth quite a bit in and of itself.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Serving Sara is rated PG-13. There is no nudity and very little rough language, but some of the situations are quite adult. In addition, younger children won't get many of the (there are some I suspect older children won't get, either). You don't really need to worry, though, about bringing the kids as long as they're 12 or older.