With their comedic styles like night and day, there was no guarantee that any sort of chemistry would result from the pairing of Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart on screen, but after seeing them together in Get Hard, in retrospect it seems like a no-brainer. Hart’s in-your-face approach serves as a perfect counterpoint for Ferrell’s naïve babe-in-thewoods routine, and their interactions get the film back on track whenever it begins to meander, which is often. The script by Jay Martel, Ian Roberts and director Etan Cohen is nothing special and is a bit of a letdown from the filmmaker’s previous work on Tropic Thunder and Men in Black 3. It’s childish at times, far too obvious and pushes the boundaries of decency in an R-rated feature. Yet, what it has to say about race and the increasing disparity between the haves and have-nots grounds it enough so that we might excuse its harsher elements, though they do produce big laughs.

Ferrell is James King, an investment banker who’s living the dream. He has millions to spare, has a beautiful fiancé (Alison Brie) who happens to be his boss’ (Craig T. Nelson) daughter and has just been named partner at the firm he’s been toiling at. However, things go south in a hurry when he’s accused and convicted of fraud and made an example of by receiving a harsh, 10-year sentence in San Quentin. Given 30 days to get his affairs in order, in a panic, King hires Darnell (Hart), a hard-worker who owns his own car detailing company, to train him how to survive behind bars. He reasons that because the guy who washes his car each day is black, he must have gone to prison, so who better to help him out. Darnell longs to expand his business and move his family out of South Central, so he goes along with this ruse and the training begins.

Darnell quickly transforms King’s mansion into a faux prison, complete with a yard, cell and cafeteria, and it’s here that many of the lessons occur with varying degrees of success. Some of the gags are very, very good, generating the sort of laughter that will have you wiping your eyes. A routine in which Hart gets to shine by taking on three different roles with Ferrell caught in the middle threatens to run too long but is redeemed by the comics’ crackerjack timing, while a simulated riot introduces one surprising element after another resulting in a horrific and hilarious shiv accident. Equally effective is when King perfects his trash talk, as well as a visit to Darnell’s cousin Russell (T.I.) in the heart of L.A.’s mean streets in an effort to get the millionaire inducted into a hard-edged street gang so that he might have protection on the inside. A similar scene involving a white supremacist group fails to realize its potential, while the film’s climax is a rote exercise in physical comedy and uninspired narrative resolution that makes no bones about the fact that the film has simply run out of steam. As for a sequence in a gay café where Darnell takes King for an anonymous hook up so that he might learn a necessary skill he’ll need while locked up, it will either repulse you with its crudity or have you laughing uproariously because of its daring.

While these shenanigans are going on, the writers introduce commentary on race and the continued rape of the financial markets and middle class by the 1 percent to good effect. This is not a new proposal where Ferrell’s film are concerned, as they’ve been cited in The Other Guys and The Campaign as well, but it’s the first time that correlations between coldblooded killers and those who would exploit the economy for their own gain at the expense of others have been made. Equally pointed is the fact that so many members of the African- American community have been marginalized because of their race and lack of wealth to realize their full potential.

To be sure, these are points that many will only think of after the laughter has died down, if at all. But it’s to the filmmaker’s credit that they inject a bit of social commentary amidst the ribald hijinks on display. In the end, Hard proves to be a comedy with an agenda that’s saved by the two leads who will hopefully reunite with a more consistent script in tow.

Contact Chuck Koplinski at [email protected].