Queenpins is the best surprise film this summer, in fact it may be the best film this season.
Kristen Bell is Connie Kaminski a housewife who has not been successful in her attempts to become pregnant, but who understands the value of coupon cutting. Over time in the story she learns just how valuable coupons can be. Coupling with next door neighbor JoJo Johnson (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) they hatch a plot to make serious money using coupons.
Using research the two find themselves in Mexico where the coupons are printed looking for the extra non used and usually destroyed coupons. The system begins to work for them when they sell the free item coupons for half price. JoJo does the advertising on the internet and the two rake in plenty of cash.
What works best is the comic tone presented by the two directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. Using every situation and casting perfectly for each character they produce the most hilarious film of the summer.
Bell’s Connie is the main focus and her almost innocent outlook keeps a sense comedy in every action the two women take. Perfectly cast is Paul Walter Hauser the short overweight expert on false coupons who follows the rules without exception. He gives no breaks even for an elderly woman who could use the help at the grocery store. Hauser has comedy flowing all around him and when we learn he is regular in a confined car with Vince Vaughn’s Simon (a postal inspector) the audience breaks up with laughter.
In a summer that has had little to cheer about on the screen, this is a wonderful surprise. What more could we ask for than a running comedy line that fills every scene in a film that is perfectly cast and directed flawlessly. See it for fun.