Director: Nanette Burstein
Starring: Justin Long, Drew Barrymore, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston, Kristen Schaal
Score: 6.5 / 10
This review for Going the Distance by Alan Simmons.
Garrett (Justin Long) and Erin (Drew Barrymore) are made for each other. Both are wry and brutally honest, both are unhappy at work, both have a support network of wacky friends or family and both manage to amusingly walk into something the first time we meet them. Garrett has just self-destructed another long-term relationship and Erin isn’t looking for anything serious as she’s leaving town in a few weeks. Following Garrett’s split and Erin getting denied a full-time job at the newspaper she’s spent the summer interning for, both parties decide to get wasted. Meeting in a bar, they bond over pitchers of beer, their skill at Centipede and winning a Pub Quiz. Going back to Garrett’s place the deal is sealed with talk of Tom Cruise, a mutual love of the Beastie Boys and a few bong hits. Over the next few weeks they inevitably fall in love and when it comes time for Erin to leave Noo Yoik/Garrett behind and fly back to San Francisco, both decide they can’t bear to break up and decide to do “the long distance thing”.
Over the next few months, the pair attempt to make things work while geography and their careers conspire to break them up. They’re a perfect couple but can they go the distance? Of course they bloody can, but for anyone who’s ever been in a long distance relationship, their trials and tribulations are both sharply spot on and pretty darn funny.
I’m not a rom-com guy. I’ve seen the classics and I of course love the one with zombies in it, but while it’s a genre I’ve never gone out of my way to see – I really quite enjoyed Going the Distance. Even though I saw it with a dry, taking it all very seriously, folded arms brigade that managed to make me feel self-conscious for, heaven forbid, LAUGHING AT A COMEDY, how unprofessional, I laughed it up surprisingly hard and consistently throughout. I say surprisingly as I wasn’t actually expecting it to be that funny or expecting that kind of humour. While not at all Apatow filth or Farrelly gross-out, there are lots of dirty laughs and a smattering of the good, old F word that caught me unawares. The film is aided by a hilarious, odd-ball supporting cast, including my Kristen Schaal, but a little hindered by the fact that these characters are only present for one scene each – sometimes making the movie feel sketchy and pieced together.
I heart Justin Long and have always loved Drew Barrymore and as a couple they are ridiculously believable, perhaps due to a romance that may still be active (I did google it, but to be honest I only managed to peek at two gossip sites before my eyes rolled so hard I could see my medula oblongata). Whether or not they’re still together they have had a thing in the past and it shows. Their chemistry is easy and fun, their love scenes feel genuine and their sarcastic banter fizzes back and forth like an Alka-Seltzer encrusted ping pong ball.
If any guys want some easy brownie points, you could do a lot worse than take your lady along for an easy on schmaltz, high on laff’s evening.
Check out the official Facebook page for the film.
