Film: Going the Distance
Director: Nanette Burstein
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Ron Livingston, Jim Gaffigan, Kelli Garner, Rob Riggle, Christina Applegate
Rating: * * ½
This film is about a young couple who are attracted to each other, yet go their own ways. The couple realises within a certain span of time that their love for each other is far too real and strong to fade away. Nanette Burstein makes her transition from documentaries to films with this lively and passably engaging story.
Garett (Justin Long) works in the music industry and Erin (Drew Barrymore) is an aspiring reporter. They come together for a brief interlude in New York and then move on to their own separate lives. But love strikes hard enough to get them together again! Geoff LaTulippe fashions a dippy script; one which starts out well, with insight and charm, but soon enough loses its way.
His sequences have a Bollywoodish flourish; generic and cliched, yet entertaining. Garrett rushes to the airport, gets waylaid by a security guard who demands to know the specifics of the girl he is after, before stopping traffic in his favour, makes it as far as the check-in line, and manages to tell Erin that he would miss her and hoped to find a way to keep the relationship going.
Garrett’s best friends are slackers who exist mainly to heighten the effect of Garett’s earnestness. For Erin it’s her big sis (Christina Applegate) who tries hard to pull her back. We have seen such outlandishness in mainstream Indian comedies, now it’s Hollywood’s turn.
Nanette adds plenty of tricks to the narrative — animated title sequences, montages, split screens, iPhone messages popping up, coupled with a soundtrack over-indulgently populated with guitar music. It’s engaging for a while, but tedium sets in thereafter.
Drew and Justin are effective together. But it’s never enough to overcome the ungainly reverence of Nanette’s narrative.
Comments
