Two stars. Rating: PG-13, for thematic elements, sexual content, drug use, profanity and brief violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.22.13
In a case that was argued before
a Kansas judge just a few weeks ago — having wound its way through the court
system for roughly a year — sperm donor William Marotta is fighting an order by
the state that he pay child support for a little girl he “fathered” four years
ago.
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| As the newly pregnant Emma (Cobie Smulders) watches the uncontrolled little children at a neighborhood park, lamenting that she hasn't the faintest notion of how to become a mother, David (Vince Vaughn) insists that she'll be the perfect parent. He should know, given the rather massive secret that he can't bring himself to share with her... |
Marotta responded to a Craigslist
ad placed by two women back in 2009; the three drew up a contract that absolved
him of any responsibility to or for the child. The same-sex couple subsequently
split up, which forced the custodial parent — Jennifer Schreiner — to obtain
$6,000 in public assistance, to help pay her family expenses.
Kansas state law requires that a
licensed doctor perform artificial insemination. Seizing a legal loophole
because — wait for it — Schreiner and then-partner Angela Bauer used a catheter
and syringe, with no doctor present, the state filed suit and thus far has
spent well in excess of $6,000 to recover this sum from Marotta. Hovering in
the wings, as Marotta’s attorney suggests, is the certainty that conservative Kansas
lawmakers — the state approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in
2005 — are using this case to reaffirm their position on “family values.”
Although a decision is expected
by the end of the year, that won’t be the end of it; both sides are expected to
appeal an unfavorable verdict.
I’ve absolutely no doubt that an
incisive, scathingly satirical film could be made from this bizarre scenario,
and it would have been far funnier, and much more satisfying, than Ken Scott’s Delivery Man.
This Vince Vaughn vehicle has
been re-shaped somewhat from the 2011 Canadian dramedy Starbuck, which Scott
also directed and co-wrote with Martin Petit. That film was enormously popular
in its native country, winning a series of Canadian cinema awards and making a
splash at regional film festivals.
(In a fascinating case of life
imitating art, a month or so into Starbuck’s production, the news broke of
Michigan’s Dr. Kirk Maxey, who had fathered roughly 400 children after donating
semen twice a week between 1980 and ’94. He subsequently lobbied for stricter
sperm bank regulation. You think?)
I’ve not seen Starbuck, and
therefore cannot comment on its merits. But I suspect it’s far more
entertaining than Delivery Man, which can’t decide what it wants to be, when
it grows up.
