Delivery Man (2014)

Meat delivery truck driver David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) works with his father Mikolaj (Andrzej Blumenfeld) and two brothers Victor (Simon Delaney) and Aleksy (Bobby Moynihan) in their family business that Mikolaj built from scratch after immigrating to New York during the war. David is forever known as the unreliable one, with no one ever able to trust him to do anything.

In fact, it is his unreliability that has his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders) ready to end things. When she tells him she is pregnant, he promises her that he is going to turn his life around, and make it mean something. And if he didn’t owe eighty thousand dollars to a loanshark, she would probably be able to believe him.

One night after getting home from work, David finds an attorney waiting in his apartment, who introduces himself as the attorney representing the local fertility clinic.

During the early nineties, David had donated a total of 693 sperm samples as a way of making quick and easy money. He signed every single one of the confidentiality agreements under the pseudonym ‘Starbuck’.

As it turns out, his samples were very strong, and the owner of the clinic had given a sample of his to every single one of his clients. David has unknowingly fathered a total of 533 children, and now, 142 of them wish to know his identity.

David (Vince Vaughn) tries to convince Emma (Cobie Smulders) that he can change.

David’s best friend Brett (Chris Pratt), himself a father of four young children, advises him against entering into any sort of agreement, but when David receives an envelope containing the profiles of all 142 complainants, curiosity gets the better of him, and he enters into each of their lives - one at a time - and tries to make their lives a little bit better.

The screenplay - by director Ken Scott - is very clever, and well written. There is plenty of humour - the film is a comedy after all - but the humour never descends into crudeness. There is also a lot of heart in there too, as David meets and comes to know each of his many children, who are from all different walks of life and have all had different experiences.

Jon Brion’s score is unobtrusive throughout, indeed for most of the film, I barely noticed it. This is not a bad thing, in fact, music that doesn’t announce itself and take away from the on-screen action is the ultimate aim of any film composer.

The best thing about this film though has got to be the casting of all of David’s children. The many interactions between the characters are what give this film its enormous appeal. One of the most touching interactions has got to be one of David’s daughters, Kristen (Britt Robertson) who, when David first meets her, has just overdosed on heroin. David must step up and be a father figure, even though he is unable to tell her who he is, and she has no idea who this kind stranger is, but somehow feels connected to him anyway.

David (Vince Vaughn) connecting with his children, particularly Kristen (Britt Robertson).

This leads nicely into talking about the performances of the cast. It probably won’t surprise you to know that in my opinion, the standout performance of the film is from Britt Robertson. Sure, Vince Vaughn isn’t bad, either, but he isn’t very different from a lot of his other roles. He is the perfect choice of actor to play this part, but it isn’t anything particularly different from anything else he has done.

Chris Pratt, too, was a good choice for his character, but is again too similar to some of his other roles, in particular his character from Parks and Recreation.

Brett (Chris Pratt) doesn't think that David (Vince Vaughn) has thought this through completely.

However, this is a wonderfully entertaining film, with a really positive message behind it too by the end. Director Ken Scott - who you will recall wrote the screenplay too - has made a film that I always enjoy every time I watch it, yet still manages to make me cry every time as well.

8 out of 10.