"Unplugging" too uneven and strained to be funny about digital detox

Unplugging (2022)

Luckily for “Unplugging,” there’s nothing dated about people being addicted to their phones. It’s a fact—don’t deny it, we’re all guilty—and it’s the basis for longtime film editor Debra Neil-Fisher’s directorial debut starring Matt Walsh and Eva Longoria. The central idea of taking a digital detox is certainly ripe for comic exploration, too, but there’s nothing too funny or insightful here. It is generally good-natured, but too uneven and occasionally strained to be the smart comedy for grown-ups it could have been.

Dan (Walsh) and Jeanine Dewerson (Longoria) are married and raise their pre-teen daughter (Hala Finley) in the Chicago suburbs. He’s a self-employed entrepreneur still trying to get his hot sauce product off the ground after losing his advertising job, and she’s a workaholic commercial leasing director glued to her phone and obsessed with answering work emails. It’s not until the funeral of a friendly, loved-by-all UPS driver (Al Madrigal) that it dawns on Dan: they need to be more present without the everyday distractions of technology. A digital detox in the country it is for the couple, but it’s going to be particularly difficult for Jeanine, who’s addicted to her phone and forced to take a sabbatical by her office HR for her lack of boundaries. Dan is willing to reconnect with his wife in an extremely small town (population 5) where power outages are normal, but will Jeanine stop checking for a mobile signal to save her marriage?

2020’s likable sci-fi indie “Save Yourselves!” had a similar premise, where a millennial couple took a technology-free weekend in a remote cabin. Then aliens posing as pouffes showed up. That doesn’t happen here, but maybe it should have because “Unplugging” doesn’t have any fish-out-of-water material that’s actually amusing once Dan and Jeanine go off the grid. (One of the funnier gags, and it’s not even intentional or at least not commented upon, is spotting the $1.69 price for unleaded fuel at a gas station.) What starts as relatable becomes more of a stale, out-of-touch sitcom that doesn’t know what it wants to do with its characters. When it tries pushing for wackiness involving our protagonists having run-ins with country oddballs and being chased by aerospace drones, “Unplugging” sells itself short. The script by Brad Morris and co-star Walsh is at its best when the humor is more observational and less so when it contrives conflict and any R-rated edginess, like sex jokes, F-bombs, and the consumption of chocolate-covered blueberry cannabis edibles.

As played by Walsh and Longoria, the laid-back Dan and control freak Jeanine are pleasing enough to be around, even as these marrieds squabble when the truths finally come out. Keith David and Lea Thompson also show up, respectively, as a bartender and the “town crab ass” with insane conspiracy theories and a pet raccoon named Lulu. David brings a groundedness and his innate wisdom, but Thompson drives in from a different, much weirder movie. When the movie does calm down and aims for poignancy, “Unplugging” addresses the challenges of balancing work and marriage with some unexpected honesty, but it's too little, too late to turn things around. 

Eva Longoria and Matt Walsh can only do so much with a script that’s rather lame and not always as funny as it wants to be. It’s just strange that the movie sets out for its couple to put down their phones and be more present with each other and then ends up having them spend the second half of the movie trying to find a signal. We won’t even get into the farm chicken whose leg Jeanine accidentally breaks before she tries euthanizing it with water and aspirin from her own mouth because, yes, that’s a thing that happens in the name of comedy. It’ll be interesting to see if “Unplugging” will inspire anyone to lower their screen time or not, but it’s doubtful.

Grade: C

Vertical is releasing “Unplugging” (94 min.) in theaters April 22, 2022 and on digital and on demand April 29, 2022.