rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by David Wain; produced by David Wain, Paul Rudd, Jonathan Stern, Ken Marino, Morris S. Levy; written by David Wain, Ken Marino
Starring Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Jessica Alba, Justin Theroux, Liev Schreiber, Oliber Platt, Gretchen Mol, Jason Sudeikis, Ken Marino, Adam Brody, David Wain, Rob Corddry, Janeane Garofalo
'The Ten' exists out of ten stories based on the Ten Commandments. Paul Rudd presents them, standing in a black room in front of the stone tablets, while dealing with his own problems too - he has Famke Janssen as a wife, and Jessica Alba as a girlfriend - which turns out to be the story for commandment nine: "Thou shall not commit adultery."
The stories are deliberately messy, make little sense, and push limits especially concerning religion. About half the short films work. This is enough to like the film, but not enough to really recommend it. Winona Ryder has the funniest story, ironically in the segment "Thou shall not steal," where she falls in love with a wooden dummy.
Familiar faces – besides Rudd, Janssen, Alba and Ryder we get to see Live Schreiber, SNL’s Jason Sudeikis, Rob Corddry (in an almost funny segment involving prison rape played out as a bad television series episode), Justin Theroux (as Jesus Christ not ready for the rapture yet), Grectchen Mol (as the lover of Jesus), Oliver Platt and Janeane Garofalo – make sure the lesser shorts at least contain something people might be interested in.