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THEY CAME TOGETHER
It's always a little sad when a movie loses something in its journey from the written page to the screen. Director and co-writer David Wain had a rather clever idea in his 2014 film They Came Together, but really needed a little help from people who really know how to do what he was trying to do here, people like Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers.
Framed around a double date at a trendy New York eatery, this is a lampoon of the contemporary romantic comedy whose basic plot line resembles the Hanks/Ryan comedy You've Got Mail with Amy Poehler playing the owner of a small candy shop who finds herself romantically involved with an executive at a large candy conglomerate (Paul Rudd) but the film also features very knowing winks at films like Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and Jerry Maguire. The comedy recounts the bumpy relationship between these two characters that gets complicated by misunderstandings, bad advice from BFF's and how business and careers can get in the way of true romance.
This was a great idea on paper and David Wain's attempt to do a satire of romantic comedies does make some right moves here in term of story and scene structure...there are scenes in this movie that will bring to mind romantic comedies of the past. but as you watch there's something that's not right here and if I had to put a finger on it, I would have to say Wain and Michael Showalter's screenplay is a little safe...in order to truly lampoon a movie genre, risks have to be taken and nods to certain movies have to go where the original movie dared not to tread and this movie just isn't daring enough in its execution...it seems to want to lampoon the genre without actually offending it. A true lampoon will always involve some degree of offense, satire doesn't exist without stepping over the line a bit and this story is just played with too straight a face to be truly effective as what it seems to be intending to be.
Rudd and Poehler do have a certain amount of chemistry, but I think even they are a bit confused as to exactly what's going on here...there are scattered laughs, but they're not the kind of laughs they should be.
It's always a little sad when a movie loses something in its journey from the written page to the screen. Director and co-writer David Wain had a rather clever idea in his 2014 film They Came Together, but really needed a little help from people who really know how to do what he was trying to do here, people like Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers.
Framed around a double date at a trendy New York eatery, this is a lampoon of the contemporary romantic comedy whose basic plot line resembles the Hanks/Ryan comedy You've Got Mail with Amy Poehler playing the owner of a small candy shop who finds herself romantically involved with an executive at a large candy conglomerate (Paul Rudd) but the film also features very knowing winks at films like Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and Jerry Maguire. The comedy recounts the bumpy relationship between these two characters that gets complicated by misunderstandings, bad advice from BFF's and how business and careers can get in the way of true romance.
This was a great idea on paper and David Wain's attempt to do a satire of romantic comedies does make some right moves here in term of story and scene structure...there are scenes in this movie that will bring to mind romantic comedies of the past. but as you watch there's something that's not right here and if I had to put a finger on it, I would have to say Wain and Michael Showalter's screenplay is a little safe...in order to truly lampoon a movie genre, risks have to be taken and nods to certain movies have to go where the original movie dared not to tread and this movie just isn't daring enough in its execution...it seems to want to lampoon the genre without actually offending it. A true lampoon will always involve some degree of offense, satire doesn't exist without stepping over the line a bit and this story is just played with too straight a face to be truly effective as what it seems to be intending to be.
Rudd and Poehler do have a certain amount of chemistry, but I think even they are a bit confused as to exactly what's going on here...there are scattered laughs, but they're not the kind of laughs they should be.