Duplex

This flat, moronic Ben Stiller-Drew Barrymore comedy feels like it is always just on the verge of becoming funny. The two generally embraceable stars play a yuppie couple that buys and moves into a Brooklyn duplex in which an elderly lady (Eileen Essel nimbly personifying a passive-aggressive thorn) resides above their bedroom in rent-controlled quarters. The grandmotherly dame soon turns into a tenant from hell that watches TV very late and very, very loudly every night and constantly interrupts her new landlords’ personal and professional lives with requests for home repairs or help with errands. Director Danny DeVito was much more successful with the black humor of The War of the Roses, as domestic conflicts once again turn to the premeditation of murder.