Okay, the people who are calling this movie the next
(500) Days of Summer really needs to go and shove their heads up their asses. It's like comparing masturbating and orgasm-ing.
But let me be clear that this movie is somewhat tolerable for a chick flick despite still having some major major flaws which I will get to in a bit. Aren't you just sick of seeing Justin Long and Drew Berrymore do these sappy romantic comedies? No one writes good rom coms anymore. They are compiled, cut and pasted together from bits and pieces of other romantic comedies and then are tailor made to fit their two A-list stars.
Going The Distance is basically about Erin and Garret, two lovers in New York who after a 6 week romantic whirl together has to try maintaining their relationship over long distance when Erin leaves to finish her studies in San Francisco.
Though the film does has some light moments of heart that I really liked, I couldn't help but leave the theatre feeling somewhat underwhelmed by it. First of, this movie is really long. Raking up to about 2 hours 15 minutes. And there's only so much the long distance storyline that you can talk about in that amount of time. Imagine that one single plot point which could work fine within an hour and a half being stretched to fit two hours. That's when the problem starts.
Going The Distance fails to live up to it's tagline of being a realistic adult romantic comedy. Yes, it is more realistic than most rom coms out there, but there are still things that happen in this film that is totally impossible in my opinion. Or maybe it's just me. No wonder she broke up with me. Heh. Anyway...
The comedy in this really fluctuates here and there. There are moments where Going The Distance is really funny and there are moments where it falls flat. Particularly when it comes to the two leads who are really great at having no chemistry with each other. Didn't Long and Berrymore date in real life or something? Those two just didn't seem to care much for each other.
But what was great in here were the supporting cast. Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate and Ron Livingston really made up some ground the leads lost for me. They were sort of the in-laws for Erin and Garret, each having their dysfunctional, unorthodox personality ranging from flat out toilet humor to OCD mannerisms. It's only when those guys were on screen felt Going The Distance was the raunchy adult comedy it said it was.
But don't get me wrong, this movie as an overall romantic comedy is pretty okay. Perhaps a change in the lead roles would have made the film more affable for me. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deshcanel. Yeah, they're what this movie needs.
RATING: 5/10
