Honey Don't!

Some films are messy in a charming way. Honey Don’t! is just disjointed. The premise has a spark, but what follows feels like a rough cut that somehow made it to release. Scenes clunk together with editing that often feels uneven or undercooked, characters barely get a chance to develop, and the humour is a long way from the Coens at their best.

And that may be the real problem: it’s massively missing something—Joel Coen. As such it drifts into a parody of itself. There are flashes of the brothers’ trademark absurdity, but the rhythm is off and the punchlines fall flat. What’s absent is the wit and structure that once gave their chaos its edge.

What keeps it from collapsing entirely is its brevity. At 89 minutes, it zips by before you grow restless. Still, speed isn’t the same as sharpness, and this one leaves little to savour.