Going The Distance

Posted In: Life As We Know It

Golda Jass says...

It seems like it has been awhile since Justin Long actually looked interested in acting.In several recent movies (notably HE'S JUST NOT THAT IN TO YOU), he has seemed bored and a little sickly.His trademark witty attitude has been strictly by-the-book.But finally, with GOING THE DISTANCE, he seems engaged again.Perhaps it's because he's been given a true leading role, or perhaps it's working with the always perky and energetic Drew Barrymore (who actually seems subdued here).



Long's character is a bit of a womanizer.He drifts from one monogamous relationship to another, blithely clueless at what a lousy boyfriend he is (even though best friends Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day constantly tell him EXACTLY why he is a lousy boyfriend).But one evening, literally hours after his latest breakup, he meets Barrymore over a game of Centipede, and sparks fly.They embark on a relationship, and Barrymore tells Long right from the start that she's moving back to San Francisco (from New York) in six weeks to finish her schooling.She's been interning at an NYC paper, but there are no jobs.So they agree to just enjoy themselves for the time they have together...but things get more serious, and when the time to depart comes, they cling to each other and promise to try to make their long distance relationship work.



What follows are montages of text, phoning & Skyping misadventures, sticker shock over coast-to-coast airline costs (nicely realistic) and the occasional visit.Long travels to California to visit Barrymore, who is living with her sister (uptight Christina Applegate) and brother-in-law (nicely played by Jim Gaffigan).



What I liked about the film was that you could feel the strain on the relationship.The weariness of remaining committed to a person you never see (and really don't even know all that well).The lonely drinking.The inconveniences of a 3 hour time zone difference. Barrymore and Long feel like young adults (early 30s) instead of teenagers resisting the transition to adulthood.The movie has a grown-up gloss to it.It is also R-rated, instead of the usual PG-13 reserved for a film like this...and this gives it the freedom to let the script tread some decidedly raunchy territory (although to mixed results).



But for everything fresh in the movie, something else feels tired.Sudeikis and Day (as co-worker and roommate to Long, respectively) bring little new to the stale "best friends" characters.It's always two guys who never have girlfriends of their own because they have cruder, baser ideals than our "hero."I guess these characters exist to spout outrageous sexual lines and to generally make the lead male look less awful by comparison.In GOING THE DISTANCE, we get to hear the real, ridiculous reason Sudeikis has grown a bushy mustache and we get to enjoy discovering that Day likes to leave the door wide open when he uses the restroom.Terrific.



Barrymore doesn't seem to have close friends, so she shares with her older, disapproving and protective sister.Applegate is a good actress, so the two ladies are convincing together, but the dialogue doesn't cover any new ground.

And I'm going to devote a paragraph just to chew the filmmakers out for casting Rob Riggle.I've written about this supremely unfunny "actor" before.He gets only one scene in this film, but he's as dreadful as ever.Just remember his turn as a cop in THE HANGOVER...his ability to bring that tight, raunchy, hilarious movie to a screeching halt with his tazering of Zach Galifinaikis is a testament to his dubious skills...if anyone can mismatch his tone to that of the movie around him, it's Rob Riggle.



GOING THE DISTANCE just mostly coasts along.It's not actively horrible, has some nice moments and Barrymore and Long do generate some real chemistry.Sometimes it feels fresh, and at others, terribly predictable.It's not a very "feel good" romance, because the two leads grapple with believable issues.So in the end, GOING THE DISTANCE never quite manages to go the distance...it's always 3 steps forward, 2 steps back.It was an okay time at the movies, but quite forgettable too.

Posted on November 14, 2010

Catherina Giese says...

I loved this movie, which focuses on the budding relationship between 31-year-old newspaper intern Erin (Drew Barrymore) and record producer Garrett (Justin Long). The couple meet in New York City but are forced to play the long-distance game when Erin's internship ends and she heads back to San Francisco. "Going the Distance" is a fun, refreshing romantic comedy that is super funny and boasts a terrific cast. I highly recommend it.

Posted on November 15, 2010

Christen Shouldice says...

It was surprisingly really funny. I am usually very critical of romantic comedies, but I really enjoyed watching Going the Distance. It is one you can watch over and over again and still laugh and enjoy it each time. It was just cute, smart, and witty, qualities such movies are lacking these days. Watch it, its worth it, and you will not be bored. Sooo Funnny :)

Posted on November 17, 2010

Lashandra Studyvance says...

GOING THE DISTANCE



STARRING: Justin Long, Drew Barrymore, Christina Applegate, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Ron Livingston, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Riggle, Matt Servitto and Kelli Garner



WRITTEN BY: Geoff LaTulippe



DIRECTED BY: Nanette Burstein



Rated: R

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Release Date: 03 September 2010

Review Date: 13 September 2010







I haven't enjoyed a romantic comedy this much since Made of Honor back in 2008. I'm extremely hard on this genre, due mainly to its overabundance of use, and lack of reality. It's all too often the same formulistic trash over and over. At last - a rom-com that `goes the distance' to meet my expectations, only to continue on and exceed them, is found in Going the Distance.



There's something for everyone here. Odds are you can relate to at least one, if not several, of the joyous adventures of dating and relationships that the picture displays so beautifully. I was continuously bombarded with smiles on my face, brought forth by memories of my personal past that the movie dug up for me.



Going the Distance is rated R and it's filled with vulgarity and potty mouthed adults. But not once, does it play out unnatural. These characters are young, and their behavior reflects that. We buy that this his how they would act and speak and, like the bad words or not - it's still more pleasant to spend over 90 minutes with real people who swear, than fake ones with forced and phony PG - 13 dialogue.



The film starts off in the very sexy city of New York and centers on the relationship of Garret (Justin Long) and Erin (Drew Barrymore). Garret runs into Erin during a night out with the guys. I won't spoil their meet-cute for you, but it was fun and original and offers up the first mouthful of bad language, and they hit it off right away; so much in fact, that they find themselves sitting on his bed later that night. See how adult and realistic? They sleep together, and discover they have amazing chemistry; as do Long and Barrymore. They spend the next six weeks schmoozing all over each other, having us in stitches along the way.



And then just when everything seems to be going so well - Erin has to leave town to move back to San Francisco to finish school. Having a solid career in the music industry there in New York, neither of them even think to suggest that Garret go with her.



We get our would-be sappy airport scene at the end of act one versus the end of the flick, and we appreciate that. It's not over the top either, and it feels right. They don't even show Long's character chasing her through the entire airport, just catching her as she's about to board the plane. No - he finds her at the ticket counter, checking in - located a mere 20 yards from where they said their goodbye. Nice, to the point, and plausible.



They share a moment and agree to try the long distance thing. Now we snuggle into our seats a little more, knowing we're about to have a blast - if we've ever dabbled in the difficulty of such a ridiculous fiasco as a long distance relationship.



Erin moves in with her sister Corrine (Christina Applegate) and Garret makes every effort to come see her as much as possible. One of the prized scenes in the film is formed from an immediate sex session needing to be met first thing, when Garret and Erin walk in the door of Corrine's house. Others include hot phone sex gone cold, miscommunication over the phone, and bad advice from moronic friends.



This movie just worked for me, and I can't wait to see it again. I've been a huge Justin Long fan since forever - like Galaxy Quest forever. The kid is amazing and it's great to see him taking on adult roles like this one, where he's no longer the skinny dweeb who can't get the girl. Barrymore, I'm not real big on, but I adored her in this.



And let's not forget the side characters. Garret's two best friends are a riot and both could easily carry a film of their own in the near future. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, ladies and gentleman; take a note of their names. Christina Applegate is brilliant as always, and makes you long for the day she's granted a much overdo lead role as well. Her face when she catches her sister being `had' in her dining room, was priceless; as was it in the scene following.



The look of this flick was sensational. Somewhere in-between the work of Woody Allen and Judd Apatow. I love the New York setting in movies, and this one is gushing with it. Match-cut it with California and can you go wrong? First time feature film director Nanette Burstein has formed a perfect movie, and surely she'll deliver us with more of the same, in the years to come.

Posted on November 17, 2010

Mollie Crusan says...

In character-driven movies, there are always moments at which conversations naturally come to a stop. This is due not only to the screenwriter's dialogue, but also the director's sense of pacing and the timing of the actors. Well-trained audiences can pick up on this; they can instinctively feel when a scene, specifically when a passage of dialogue, should end. For the characters to continue speaking after that natural moment has passed will do little more than turn a scene into an awkward moment. Of all recently released movies, "Going the Distance" is the only one I can think of that has more awkward moments than pleasant ones. There are so many instances in which characters keep on talking, even though they have already passed that natural ending point in the conversation. I must have said, "Please shut up," more times watching this film than I have in the past year.



Most of the run-on dialogue is incredibly vulgar, which would have been fine had it worked in service of the story. Watching "Going the Distance," one doesn't get the sense that it could only be told as a foul-mouthed, sexually charged joke fest; the whole thing felt like an exercise in how to make a romantic comedy R-rated. Do we really need a scene in which three guys graphically discuss masturbation in public, and then one of the guys continues the discussion with an old lady he's helping cross the street? How about a scene of the same guy asking for a beer as he sits on the toilet, doing his business? With the bathroom door open? This adds nothing to the film. It's vulgarity for vulgarity's sake. Reliable romantic comedies tend towards a PG-13 rating, and I saw no reason why this film had to be any different.



The setup is as follows. Garrett (Justin Long) lives in New York City and is a talent scout for a small record label. Erin (Drew Barrymore) is a journalism student from San Francisco, and she's spending the summer in New York as an intern for a struggling newspaper. The two meet in a bar, and they immediately hit it off. Erin returns to San Francisco six weeks later, but not before she and Garrett decide to try a long-distance relationship, which will include texting, phone calls, and the occasional visit. Naturally, it proves more difficult than they imagined it would be. As they try to manage the ups and downs of a cross-country affair, Erin gets by as a waitress and lives with her sister, Corrine (Christina Applegate), and her husband, Phil (Jim Gaffigan). She also hopes against hope that there will be a reporting position for her in New York come the new year. This is doubtful, given current economic conditions and the dying status of print.



One of the underlying issues of this film is that Drew Barrymore and Justin Long have absolutely no chemistry. Their performances are decent enough, considering, but never once did I believe them as a loving couple. That being said, I honestly don't know if recasting one or both of them would have made a difference; the material is so flat, coarse, and predictable that it's unlikely any actor or actors could have saved it, regardless of chemistry.



Which brings me back to those insufferable awkward moments. Many are exacerbated by Garrett's best friends, Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (Charlie Day), the latter doubling as Garrett's obnoxious roommate. Watching the three of them together, one idly wonders how they could stand being in the same room together, let alone be friends; Box and Dan are crude, annoying caricatures that no one in their right mind would bother getting to know. They have this maddening tendency to veer off into topics of conversation that primarily exist in low-grade teen comedies. It isn't until their final scene that I could actually see Dan, and only Dan, as something more than comedy relief; in that scene, he says something to Garrett, something both true and refreshing. Why couldn't he have been like that for the rest of the film?



Some of the awkward moments are reserved for Corrine, written as a typecast of the caring sister, the exhausted mother, and the sexually frustrated wife all rolled into one. There's a scene late in the film in her backyard, when she has a few words with Garrett as she barbecues hamburger patties; what begins as a serious and touching declaration ends as a sophomoric verbal gag, effectively ruining the moment. This is what I mean by the natural conclusion of movie conversations. If a character has said everything that needed to be said, and if it has said well, why prolong the moment with a dirty joke that's both unnecessary and unfunny? I suspect that somewhere within "Going the Distance" is a pleasant, more refined romantic comedy, a film that doesn't need long-winded passages of dialogue that aim for the lowest common denominator.

Posted on November 18, 2010

Anette Vanderiet says...

The latest Drew Barrymore film is a romantic comedy that is unexpectedly raunchy. The movie is reminiscent of Adam Sandler films to the vein of Billy Madison (Widescreen Special Edition) with a little bit of typical Judd Apatow shenanigans thrown in.



Justin Long and Drew Barrymore have this undeniable chemistry that carries the movie and makes the film enjoyable rather than over-the-top; because of this, the film is pleasant to watch rather than sappy.



Sadly, this movie will have a hard time finding its audience. As a Labor Day Weekend release, it's not competing against much at the box office; however, the movie is too mature for teenagers (it's rated R) and too much of a downer for the twenty- and thirty-somethings. The movie would be awkward on date night - it's inappropriate for the first date and it has strong implications that might prove strange for anyone who is in a long-distance relationship. Although this is not a chick film by true chick film standards, I would suggest watching this film with a bunch of girl friends rather than with a significant other.

Posted on November 18, 2010

Bree Godby says...

... it's still what you expect it to be, and the ending really is a bit unrealistic (even if you remove the film from the economic headlines we all read every day).Up until the end though, the film avoids most of the cliches that lesser rom-coms would walk right in to and is carried along on the journey by a strong supporting cast including Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis (comedy pros Jim Gaffigan and Rob Riggle also get a few good jabs in in small parts) but in the end the ending is the let-down here.However, up until the last five or ten minutes GOING THE DISTANCE seems like it really will, well, go the distance.

Posted on November 20, 2010

Margaret Harkleroad says...

My long-distance boyfriend and I watched this movie on Skype last night and I was pleasantly surprised. It lacked all the cliche, potty humor and predictability of similar fare. It was shockingly realistic as me and my beau have undergone nearly all the same challenges of an LDR (long distance relationship) as the movie portrays. There's issues of exclusivity, sex starvation, questions of commitments, jobs, resentments, cost issues, holidays spent apart and back and forth teeter tottering. Sometimes I even think I have a relationship with my phone!



Story Spoilers Alert:

Barrymore's character, a struggling journalist spends time in New York for a newspaper internship and meets Long's character at a bar (this is perhaps the biggest stretch of the entire movie as they immediately click enough to "seal the deal"). Barrymore and Long spend the next few months in the lovey-dovey honeymoon period of their romance and realize they don't want to end things. She flies back to San Fran and he stays in the Big Apple and thus, the plot of the movie: how do you make a relationship work with short-term visits and long-term time apart?



The movie was well-developed, engaging and funny. There weren't times that the story seemed forced or exaggerated. These characters (also real-life on/off again paramours) seemed to genuinely love one another enough to fight for the success of their couple-hood. This movie might not resonate as deeply with those have not had the experience of long-distance love but if you have, it's eerily accurate and spot-on in demonstrating the ups and downs of "Going the Distance."

Posted on November 20, 2010

Teena Kenndy says...

This movie is hilarious. I caution people not to bring their mother to this one. Lots of sexual jokes, sex, nudity. It was funny, yet sweet at the same time. Loved it!

Posted on November 20, 2010

Eliana Odor says...

This one resonated with me for a lot of reasons. For one, the 31 year old intern makes sense. I was a forty-something grad student not that long ago, so I can only disagree with anyone who balks at that premise. I lived a trans-continental relationship for way too long, too. Even if this romantic comedy turned to be the drippy sort, I was still prepared to like it.



But it wasn't. "Going the Distance" has that same sense of good hard play that Barrymore brought to Whip It - hardly a delicate little blossom pining for Prince Charming. This is about a relationship between grownups, so there a fair bit of grownup humor here, too, like that bumbling attempt at phonesex. In fact, I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a very long time. (At least one reviewer called this 'raunchy,' but I respectfully disagree. Even so, people with delicate ears take note.)



Mixed in with the amusing bedroom humor and guy jokes, though, there are real questions and real problems to address in the two-career couple. Without being maudlin or morose, this flick deals with those realities, too. I wouldn't call this high art, but it's much better entertainment than I had any reason to hope for.



-- wiredweird

Posted on November 22, 2010