[MOVIE] Dave Franco: Journey to adulthood in “Unfinished Business”

“Unfinished Business” starring Vince Vaugh, Tom Wilkinson, Dave France, Sienna Miller and James Marsden has unashamedly adult themes - the innocent Mike (Franco) loses his virginity and the jaded Tim (Wilinson), trapped in an unhappy marriage, rediscovers a love for life in the exotic German capital while the relentless Dan (Vaughn) refuses to give up, no matter where his quest takes him.

“Unfinished Business” is the tale of three hard working guys who are trying to catch a break embarking on what should be a routine business trip out of state who end up thousands of miles from home, in Germany, where everything that can go wrong does so with spectacularly hilarious results. At first Dan is convinced that the deal is done and heads to Portland, Oregon, confident that it’s in the bag. But once there, he discovers that his old employers, represented by his former boss at Dynamic Systems, the formidable wheeler-dealer Chuck Fortnoy (Miller) are about to steal it from under his nose.

Dan, Mike and Tim must head to Berlin to try and save the day, and they arrive in a bustling city hosting a G8 conference and a sex fetish festival with hardly a vacant room left in town. Each of them is about to experience a series of life changing adventures – and setbacks – on a business trip they’ll never forget.

Franco admits that he was a little nervous at the prospect of starring opposite Vaughn – one of his comedy heroes - who plays his boss desperately trying to secure a deal that will keep his struggling company afloat. “It’s always intimidating at first to work with someone that you’ve admired for so long,” he says. “I didn’t want to be the person in the scene to slow everything down, but what I quickly realised, working with someone as funny as Vince, is that no matter what I say, no matter how dumb the joke is, Vince will take that dumb joke of mine and turn it into gold.

The odds may be stacked against Dan, Tim and Mike, but together they find a bond that proves to be unbreakable. “I think with all three of these guys, they are down on their luck but they never feel bad for themselves. They’re fighting as hard as they can, against all odds,” says Franco.

For young Mike Pancake – an innocent abroad who has never ventured more than a few miles from his home before – being on the road with the two older, more experienced men gives him the confidence to explore, in every sense of the word. A virgin before he left the States, he proves to be very popular with some of the women he meets in the exotically Bohemian Berlin. “Yeah, that’s a big part of Mike’s journey, and he’s very successful,” Franco laughs. “Much more so than you might expect from a character who’s never even been out of his home town.

“He ends up sleeping with multiple women, and I think what they’re attracted to is what we’re talking about: his sincerity and his sweetness. His sexual journey is an entire movie within itself. He’s not only losing his virginity, but he’s trying to do it in a way that would even be risqué for a character in 50 Shades of Grey.”

"Unfinished Business” is rated R-16 by the local censors board (MTRCB) and will open nationwide in cinemas this March 5 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.