Going The Distance (2010)
Dir: Nanette Burnstein
Written By: Geoff LaTulippe
Starring: Justin Long and Drew Barrymore
Going The Distance is a “romantic comedy” that focuses on the relationship of Erin and Garret and how they deal with their long distance relationship. Hence the oh so clever title..Going The Distance.
Going The Distance is not awful mainly down to the likeable lead performances from Justin Long who is always a nice screen presence and Drew Barrymore who will never better her 10 minute role in Scream. However neither of them stretch themselves in this film and merely play characters not only you have seen them play a hundred times before but also characters we have seen in numerous tv shows and films.
The blazing unoriginality of Going The Distance is hard to ignore. The “risqué” banter between the roommates is the latest of a run of poor attempts to capture the dialogue banter of Judd Apatows films. The film also contains a sun tanning joke that if you have seen a certain episode of friends then you know the set up and the pay off. In fact if the writers of friends were to sue the writers of Going the Distance for intellectual property theft then they would have a strong case. The films ending is also a punch line to a joke rather than an actual ending, something that always frustrates me in comedy films, its ok if the joke is good but when its painfully unfunny like in Going The Distance then its not welcome.
The film is also painfully predictable with even from the opening 2 minutes you could map out what happens in the rest of the film and get it 100% right as it just follows a tried and tested rom com formula. Appearances from the band The Boxer Rebellion are a high point of the film and the performances and chemistry from Long and Barrymore as well as the soundtrack make it more tolerable than it had a right of being.
However, overall Going The Distance is a clichéd, unoriginal take on a story we have already seen and besides two good if uninspiring performances and a few good songs on the soundtrack. Going The Distance is average fare that while not awful, goes no further than other rom coms to predate it.
One Sentence Summary: Long and Barrymore do well but ultimately Going The Distance goes no further than your average rom/com
5/10
By Michael Dalton
Going The Distance is not awful mainly down to the likeable lead performances from Justin Long who is always a nice screen presence and Drew Barrymore who will never better her 10 minute role in Scream. However neither of them stretch themselves in this film and merely play characters not only you have seen them play a hundred times before but also characters we have seen in numerous tv shows and films.
The blazing unoriginality of Going The Distance is hard to ignore. The “risqué” banter between the roommates is the latest of a run of poor attempts to capture the dialogue banter of Judd Apatows films. The film also contains a sun tanning joke that if you have seen a certain episode of friends then you know the set up and the pay off. In fact if the writers of friends were to sue the writers of Going the Distance for intellectual property theft then they would have a strong case. The films ending is also a punch line to a joke rather than an actual ending, something that always frustrates me in comedy films, its ok if the joke is good but when its painfully unfunny like in Going The Distance then its not welcome.
The film is also painfully predictable with even from the opening 2 minutes you could map out what happens in the rest of the film and get it 100% right as it just follows a tried and tested rom com formula. Appearances from the band The Boxer Rebellion are a high point of the film and the performances and chemistry from Long and Barrymore as well as the soundtrack make it more tolerable than it had a right of being.
However, overall Going The Distance is a clichéd, unoriginal take on a story we have already seen and besides two good if uninspiring performances and a few good songs on the soundtrack. Going The Distance is average fare that while not awful, goes no further than other rom coms to predate it.
One Sentence Summary: Long and Barrymore do well but ultimately Going The Distance goes no further than your average rom/com
5/10
By Michael Dalton
