Phil Foster (Steve Carell) works as a tax accountant and his wife Claire (Tina Fey) is a real estate agent. They have two young children and a house in suburban New Jersey. The Fosters have tried to keep their intimate relationship alive but it is difficult given their jobs, errands, and busy schedules. So they have set aside a weekly "date night" where they go out to dinner at the local Teaneck Tavern for some quality time together. They have created a game called "What's the story?" where they secretly and quietly pick a couple in the restaurant and try to guess the nature of their relationship and what they are talking about. In order to be more accommodating to Claire, Phil has joined her book club and is the only man in it. That night he learns from his best friend that he and his wife are splitting up because they are tired of being nothing more than "best roommates." Phil wonders if the same thing could happen in his marriage.
So for one of their date nights he decides to up the ante by taking Claire to Claw, a fancy restaurant in Manhattan. They do not make reservations and find themselves waiting to see if someone cancels to get a table. When another couple fails to show up, Phil impulsively takes their reservation under the name of Tripplehorn. He is quite pleased with himself and so he and Claire get pleasantly smashed despite the high prices. But the adventure turns dark and scary when two tough guys (Jimmi Simpson, Common) appear and take them out to an alley behind the restaurant. When they learn these two are not bouncers from the Claw, they try to explain that they are not the Tripplehorns and that they don't have the object the two thugs are looking for. But it is all to no avail and suddenly this suburban couple find themselves on a long day's journey into night where their mettle and survival instincts are tested in encounters with the real Tripplehorns (James Franco, Mila Kunis), a powerful gangster (Ray Liotta), and a crooked D.A. (William Fichtner). They receive some invaluable assistance from Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg), an old client of Claire's who has many skills as a security agent.
Date Night is a hoot and worth seeing just to marvel at some of the improvised dialogue by Tina Fey and Steve Carell, who are totally credible as a couple whose marriage has lost its snap, crackle, and pop. Everyone in the audience will identify with the line uttered by one of them: "I could sleep a hundred years." Instead they find themselves on a mission just to stay alive. They come to see that trusting each other is one of the keys to renewing their intimacy. Date Night is a very funny film that also delivers some insightful truths about rediscovering love.
Special features include an audio commentary by director Shawn Levy, alternate scenes, two featurettes, a public service announcement, and a gag reel.
