Movie Review-The Ten

By Sara Pintilie/entertainment editor

Kelly, played by Wionna Ryder, stars in the “thou shall not steal” segment of The Ten, a parody on the 10 Commandments. Ryder falls in love with a puppet and steals it in the film that stars Paul Rudd and Liev Schreiber.  Photo courtesy City Lights Pictures
Kelly, played by Wionna Ryder, stars in the “thou shall not steal” segment of The Ten, a parody on the 10 Commandments. Ryder falls in love with a puppet and steals it in the film that stars Paul Rudd and Liev Schreiber. Photo courtesy City Lights Pictures

In the spirit of sketch comedy, director David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) has some blasphemous fun with the commandments in the bizarre film, The Ten.

The film conjures 10 different tales, each parodying one of the commandments and another story acting as the glue.

The adhesive narrative is about an everyman, Jeff Reigert (40-Year-Old Virgin’s Paul Rudd) and his wife Gretchen (X-Men’s Famke Janssen) and his mistress Liz (Sin City’s Jessica Alba).

I can never get enough of Rudd.

He makes me laugh in everything, and he shines as he presents the stories in a backless void with giant stone tablets.

I have to give this film kudos. It has that air of the old school spoof flicks like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and History of the World: Part 1 but goes a tad bit more daring.

One sketch is worth the admission, or at least a rental.

It was in the satirical vein of “thou shall not covet” and dealt with feuding neighbors trying to one up each other.

The audience watches as Ray Johnson (The Painted Veil’s Liev Schreiber) stares out the window as his neighbor unloads a brand-new CAT-scan machine.

A moment passes then he declares he needs to buy a CAT-scan machine.

The two neighbors just snowball into beating each other out and end up with housefuls of hospital equipment. I chuckle just thinking about it.

The whole situation goes past the point of ludicrous but keeps its wittiness, and somehow works beautifully.

Though this madness makes most of the sketches deviously hilarious, in some it just falls apart and becomes too manic and silly.

For example, in the “thou shall not steal” skit, Kelly (Little Women’s Wionna Ryder) falls in love with a puppet (no I am not kidding), steals the inanimate object and … well I’m not going to any more details.

The sketches vary too much for my liking, and in some, the religious connection was there by only a thin thread and got lost in the witty repartee and gag jokes, but that didn’t stop me from laughing.

On the positive side, the cast was able to hold its own in the film.

Schreiber and Rudd are my personal favorites, but Adam Brody (Thank You For Smoking) in the “Thou shall not worship any god other than God” segment is priceless.

Though the movie has an uneven feel throughout, The Ten offers enough solid, funny ground to get the audience members through any of the shaky parts.

Also the humor ranges enough to appeal to wider audiences if they can get past the outright blasphemy and crudeness.

I recommend catching this flick if you are in the mood for a spoof film or if you are curious to see how Wain sets the skit “thou shall not covet the neighbor’s wife” in a men’s prison.

It’s a film for pure fun.