The Ten

Infobox Film
name = The Ten


caption = Promotional movie poster for the film
director = David Wain
producer = Jonathan Stern
writer = Ken Marino
David Wain
starring = Jessica Alba
Winona Ryder
Paul Rudd
Famke Janssen
Adam Brody
Gretchen Mol
music = Craig Wedren
distributor = ThinkFilm
released = flagicon|USA August 3, 2007
runtime = 93 min.
budget = $3.75M (estimated)
imdb_id = 0811106

"The Ten" is a comedy film directed by David Wain and cowritten by Ken Marino through ThinkFilm. The film was released on August 3, 2007. The DVD was released on January 15, 2008.

Plot

Ten stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments.
* (Thou Shalt Worship No God Before Me)
A guy (Adam Brody) who becomes a celebrity after falling out of a plane and becoming permanently embedded in the ground. After a swift rise to stardom, he becomes prideful and arrogant, referring to himself as a god. His career falls apart and he loses everything. His fiance (Winona Ryder) leaves him for a TV anchor man.

* (Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord's Name in Vain)
A librarian (Gretchen Mol) who has a sexual awakening in Mexico with a swarthy local (Justin Theroux) who turns out to be the real Jesus Christ. She eventually settles down and marries her coworker (A. D. Miles), but is secretly reminded of her fling with Jesus whenever her family prays before a meal.

* (Thou Shalt Not Murder)
A doctor (Ken Marino) who kills his patient by leaving a pair of scissors inside her abdomen during surgery. Despite expecting the charges to be dropped because he left the scissors in "as a goof", the judge and jury sentence him to life in prison.

* (Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father)
A white mother (Kerri Kenney-Silver) who enlists an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator (Oliver Platt) to be a father figure to her black children after telling them the actor turned California governor is their biological father. It is revealed that their father is in reality Arsenio Hall, but they decide to keep the Arnold impersonator as part of the family because despite not being able to imitate Arsenio, he can also do a pretty good Eddie Murphy impression.

*(Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Goods)
A police detective (Liev Schreiber) who covets his neighbor's CAT Scan machine. After continuously buying additional CAT Scan machines to one up each other, both of their wives leave them. After hitting rock bottom the two neighbors reconcile and go out for a drink. Meanwhile a disaster at a nuclear power plant leaves a busload of school children in need of several CAT Scan machines. They arrive at the neighbors' houses but the doors are locked and the two men are at the bar, so all the children die.

* (Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife)
A prisoner (Rob Corddry) who desires a fellow inmate's "bitch" for his own.

* (Thou Shalt Not Steal)
The woman (Winona Ryder) from the first story, having recently married the TV anchor man, falls in love with a ventriloquist's puppet, steals it and runs off to have a romantic relationship with it.

* (Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness)
The ventriloquist, having lost his dummy and become a heroin-addicted homeless person, is told by another homeless man a story about an animated rhinoceros (voice of H. Jon Benjamin) who earns a reputation as a liar. After learning that a band of weiner dog is intent on infecting others with a fatal STD, the rhinoceros tries to warn everyone. Unfortunately, nobody believes him, and they all succumb to the STD (following an orgy) and die. It is then revealed that the rhinoceros now sells drugs to the homeless men.

* (Remember the Sabbath and Keep It Holy)
The husband from the second story (A. D. Miles) skips church with his family to get naked with his friends and listen to Roberta Flack.

* (Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery)
Jeff Reigert (Paul Rudd) presents all of these stories to the audience, while struggling with his own moral dilemma: having to choose between his beautiful wife (Famke Janssen) and his also beautiful but somewhat younger mistress (Jessica Alba).

Cast

*Winona Ryder as Kelly LaFonda
*Jessica Alba as Liz Anne Blazer
*Adam Brody as Stephen Montgomery
*Famke Janssen as Gretchen Reigert
*Justin Theroux as Jesus
*Oliver Platt as Marc Jacobson
*Liev Schreiber as Ray Johnson
*Paul Rudd as Jeff Reigert
*Gretchen Mol as Gloria Jennings
*Rob Corddry as Duane Rosenblum
*Michael Ziegfeld as Harlan Swallow & Gary
*Ken Marino as Dr. Glenn Richie
*Janeane Garofalo as Beth
*Matthew Zickel as Louis La Fonda
*Kerri Kenney-Silver as Bernice Jaffe
*A.D. Miles as Oliver Jennings
*Michael Showalter as Police Lt. Flarn Bairn
*David Wain as Abe Grossman
*Thomas Lennon as Scotty Pale
*Bobby Cannavale as Marty
*Ron Silver as Fielding Barnes
*Joe Lo Truglio as Paul
*Zandy Hartig as Sally/Callie
*Robert Ben Garant as Bob
*Jason Sudeikis as Tony
*Cedric Sanders as Greg
*Arlen Escarpeta as Todd
*Kevin Allison as Stanley
*Nina Hellman as Nancy
*Michael Mulheren as Big Buster
*Rashida Jones as Rebecca

Trivia

*Gretchen (Famke Janssen) says she is now dating Jim Stansel when Jeff (Paul Rudd) goes to see her. Jim Stansel is a name of an old co-worker of Wain's father used by Beth (Janeane Garofalo) in Wain's Wet Hot American Summer when she tries to go learn about astrophysics to impress Henry (David Hyde Pierce). She says "she has to go meet Jim Stansel".

*Bob (Robert Ben Garant) is seen during the "Remember The Sabbath and Keep It Holy" story explaining Pink Floyd's The Wall using the same dialogue from the very first sketch by The State in which, Garant explains the album/movie to little children at a birthday party.

References

* [http://www.thetenmovie.com/a1_statement.php Official Website - Director's Statement]

External links

* [http://www.thetenmovie.com THE TEN-Official Site]
* [http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6698678974 THE TEN on Facebook]
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10007947-ten|title=The Ten
* [http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/ten2007 "The Ten"] at Metacritic
* [http://www.jewreview.net/article.php?id=1544 David Wain and Ken Marino chat up The Ten on JewReview.net]
* [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/e3i41847dd9a1454e508642e94a98f994d2 Hollywood Reporter critical review]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811106/ The Ten] at imdb
* [http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/493843,CNT-News-ten03.article Chicago Sun-Times critical review]
* [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/03/DDIERBUCA2.DTL San Francisco Chronicle review]