'Ted' review: a movie about “not a boy, but not yet a man”

Ted-film-review-2012

A look at Seth MacFarlane's grizzly film

Ted is not a movie about two guys (or, in this case one guy and one teddy bear) chasing girls, getting wasted and making jokes about body fluids and sexual intercourse. It is a movie about a boy growing up to be a man and assuming his responsibilities. Oh wait, is it?

We all had that one special toy, our best friend who was there for us, comforting us throughout that tough period in our early years. Some of us moved on, some of us held on to him a bit longer, through the era of adolescence. But John (Mark Wahlberg) is already 35 when he has to deal with his teddy bear 'Ted', as it comes to life as a result of a childhood wish. Ted grew up to be a part of him until one day, that boy met a girl. Pardon, a boy-that-is-already-a-man who met the woman of his life, Lori (Mila Kunis). Although open-minded and tolerant, Lori gets fed up with sharing her man with a talking bear. One day she makes an ultimatum: either Ted moves out, or she gets out of John’s life..

The good old recipe of sexual humor combined with a beautiful girl and a lost and found friendship have been exploited to the maximum in MacFarlane’s movie debut (the creator of TV’s Family Guy).

Although the movie contains a decent amount of dirt and immature sexual jokes, the script hides some real pearls: a tribute to Flash Gordon (with Sam J. Jones appearing as himself), a Star Wars homage (a cell phone melody) and a sarcastic humor when it comes to new teenage one-movie/one-song stars (at the very beginning and in the end). To our surprise when our hero (*spoiler) wants to win back his girlfriend and performs a song from a soundtrack of their movie on the stage, the crowd doesn't get all emotional. He gets a police escort off the stage, to the great satisfaction of the audience.

Ted's character is a bond of a man with his childhood/adolescence, mixed with the careless days of sitting on the couch and talking nonsense. Furthermore, Ted will make you want to grab back your old teddy bear and make a wish.