It’s availableon Netflix Watch Instantly, and it’s hilarious.
Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, Josh Brolin, and Richard Jenkins. It’s a road trip story, a search for birth parents story, and a relationship comedy, with weird fetishes, bisexuality, LSD, and MTM’s boobs (well, not nude, but it’s a funny scene regardless).
Very few people seem to have seen it, and I think it’s up there with Quick Change and Noises Off as a hidden gem.
Actually, I’d say it’s far better than either of those. Fw/D is by David O. Russell, right before he made the also-terrific Three Kings, and probably the closest anyone ever came to making a Preston Sturges movie in the 90s. A fantastic gem.
It was funny that Jenkins and Brolin were both nominated for Oscars in the same year–I wish someone had asked them about Flirting w/Disaster on the red carpet.
Flirting With Disaster is one of the few Ben Stiller movies I’ve seen that I really liked–probably because he plays it more straight than his current way-over-the-top schtick, and because the rest of the cast is so awesome. I haven’t seen it since it first came out on video some fourteen years ago. May be time for a rewatch.
I agree with all of this (although I wasn’t aware of the AA thing). I’ve recommended this movie to others… absolutely brilliant, and what’s more, it gets funnier and funnier as it goes along, right through the final reel.
One last note to the newbies: don’t ignore the closing credits (there’s some funny clips included there)!
