Going far from funny

FILM REVIEW

Going the Distance
DIRECTED BY: Nanette Burstein
STARRING: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston
CERT: 15A

The one thing worse than a bad romantic comedy is a bad romantic comedy that’s trying really hard not to be like the other bad romantic comedies.
The Ugly Truth is one such recent effort, a film so bad they had to put an extra definition of bad in the dictionary: “A thing of such monumental badness that all other bad things call it ‘Daddy’”.
Going The Distance is not quite that bad. It might be the son of bad or maybe the nephew. Perhaps the personal assistant to the godfather of bad. Not the big boss of bad but nevertheless bad to the bone. 
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long – apparently a real-life item – meet in a New York bar and hit it off. It’s only meant to be a bit of fun but hey, they discover they like each other and soon fall in love.
Six weeks later she has to go back to college in San Francisco while he stays on the east coast. So they try to keep the romance going from across the continent but keeping a long distance relationship alive is hard work at the best of times – and even harder in a recession, when there isn’t much cash lying around for cross country flights.
Finding work in the same city is not much of an option either. She’s trying to make it as a journalist and he’s an A&R assistant in the music industry – two professions that have been kicked hard by the economic meltdown.
What to do, what to do? Well, here’s an idea – have writer Geoff LaTulippe (oh dear, what hell did that poor boy go through with a name like that?) go back to his computer, open up the script, highlight all the text and press delete. While you’re at it, ask director Nanette Burstein – an excellent documentary maker (On The Ropes, American Teen) – what in the world she was thinking?
With the sappy central characters, the tired old cut-out supporting cast, the bloody awful dialogue and the embarrassingly contrived situations – it’s bad enough. But then Burstein throws in some hand-held camera and a ton of foul language in a clear but deluded attempt to make the whole thing, like, super edgy. The result is super stupid.
So are there no redeeming features at all? Well, there is an occasional laugh, but the best one was given away in the trailer. Barrymore and Long are a likeable pair at times but too many of their scenes seem specifically designed to induce rolling of the eyes, groans of despair, and on more than one occasion, severe nausea. As Barrymore’s highly-strung sister, Christina Applegate is entertaining.
Wonderful news, I’m sure.

Cyrus
DIRECTED BY: Jay and Mark Duplass
STARRING: John C Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener
CERT: 15A

This is the kind of film Nanette Burstein probably thought she was making – a comedy that’s romantic, genuinely edgy and not a little bit dark.
Reilly plays John, a lonely chap still mourning the end of his marriage and a tad troubled that his friendly ex-wife Jamie (Keener) is about to remarry. While drowning his sorrows at a party, he meets Molly (Tomei), a sweet and beautiful lady who seems charmed by this big, sad man – and by their amusing accidental encounter.
Sparks flash between the too but the budding romance runs into trouble when John meets Cyrus (Hill), Molly’s 21-year-old son, who doesn’t take kindly to having to share his mother with another man. Cyrus is a creepy, manipulative little git, who’s a little too fond of Mommy for comfort. She doesn’t seem too bothered. She’s a single mother who’s been lonely too long, happy to have found a good man and just wants everybody to get along grand. For a while, the two boys manage to put on a good show.
The Duplass brothers do a fine job setting up the story and establishing strong, sympathetic characters. The momentum lets up after the halfway mark and they seem to run out of ideas as to how to bring it home. There are times, too, when the comedy and the darker plot elements (howya, Dr Freud!) don’t exactly sit well together.
But the excellent cast make it worth sticking with and it’s starting to look like young Jonah Hill will be the Judd Apatow gang member who goes on to enjoy the most fruitful career.