Is there a comedic actress alive who does the “I’m too square to bother trying to be hip, so I’m going to compensate by mining my awkward out-of-touchness for laughs” shtick better than Tina Fey? (Okay, maybe this one, but she’s not in a big studio film opening this weekend, so she doesn’t count.) Fey built an entire character on geeky tics— 30 Rock’s foot-phobic, clown-dating Liz Lemon —and in Date Night, she ups the anti-It-girl ante with a little marital ennui.

The movie itself—in which bored working mom Claire (Fey) and bored working dad Phil (Steve Carell) pretend to be something they aren’t and find that there are worse fates than a boring suburban life—is good for a few laughs, even if they’re as predictable as the story’s arc. (Instead of leaving the toilet seat up, he leaves drawers open; she gets all school-girl giggly around a shirtless Mark Wahlberg.)

But it’s Fey’s—and to a lesser extent Carell’s—take on the unavoidable ruts married couples carve for themselves that save Date Night from being just another romantic comedy caper. The best moments come when Claire and Phil lose the crooked cops chasing them (Jimmi Simpson and Common) long enough to confront the anxieties and disappointments they’ve been too worn down by life to address. (When just finding a few minutes of “us time” feels like work, do you really want to spend it nitpicking each other?) There’s no drama behind whether they’ll make it out of their mistaken-identity predicament, but you can’t help rooting for them to remember why they fell for each other in the first place.

Date Night opens nationwide April 9.

P.S. Hey, Common, you get a lifetime pass for giving us the hip-hop classic Like Water for Chocolate, but it’s time to take a break from acting. Because you’re not very good at it.