Review: ‘Serving Sara’

Grade: B

“Serving Sara” starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley is your typical comedy where Joe Tyler is sent to serve divorce papers to Sara Moore.

In the process, Sara (Hurley) gets tipped off by Joe’s co-worker, Tony (Vincent Pastore, of “The Sopranos”) and runs for her life trying to avoid Joe (Perry).

When catching Sara and serving the papers, Joe gets an offer he can’t refuse. Sara tells Joe she will pay him $1 million to forget about serving her the papers and instead serve them to her womanizing husband, Texas millionaire Gordan Moore (Bruce Campbell). He accepts the deal and goes on a nationwide manhunt to find Moore.

The film offers a lot of laughs in an almost sketch comedy-like manner. Perry and Pastore exchange petty insults in the office and Perry and Hurley find themselves acting out in comedic situations like “milking” a bull.

Although some of the jokes are crude, they’re well placed and don’t end up reducing the movie into something Adam Sandler would star in.

Cedric the Entertainer also stars in the movie as Perry’s boss and does a wonderful job. His dialogue is quick and smart, his actions are comical and he almost ends up stealing the spotlight away from Hurley and Perry. If only director Reginald Hudlin had given him a slightly bigger role in the film.

The only two problems with the film are that it’s as if Hudlin begs Perry to act out “Chandler,” his character from “Friends.” Perry does some accents and acts out different roles to get the papers served (veterinarian, flower deliverer, etc.) but with his sarcastic wit and quick actions, it spells out Chandler Bing all over again.

The other problem is that the ending is too cliched and predictable. With a movie this good, it’s a shame the ending had to be so tiresome.

Overall, despite the boring and unimaginative ending, the dialogue is smart, the characters are witty and fun and the story makes for a good comical setup filled with some enjoyable moments.