Going The Distance Review

2010 has been a awful year for an already maligned romantic comedy style, as studios continue to pair bad leading actresses with absurd high ideas, which is like pairing boxed wine with frozen Salisbury steak. They’re barely palatable & it all goes straight to your thighs. Going the Distance actually pokes its head out of the muck by offering a nugget of sincerity & surrounding the middling main narrative with outstanding supporting comedy, primarily from Jason Sudeikis & Charlie Day, who has not — as was feared — been muzzled by the studio brass. He’s downright hilarious, & far of Going the Distance feels like an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” awkwardly stitched together with a rom-com. The result is not bad. Not bad at all, .
 the other day, in my Say Anything review, I was one time ruing the fact that so few romantic comedies pair likable, nice characters who are forced to make a choice between nice or great, than a choice between simple stupidity or their over-wound libidos. Going the Distance is not even in the same league as Say Anything — it doesn’t boast any quotable lines, it sports no iconic images, & Drew Barrymore & Justin Long don’t even belong in the same. Sentence as Ione Skye & John Cusack — but it’s at least not a case where dumb characters make dumb decisions in order to maintain the film’s foundation. Like the better romantic comedies, Going the Distance merges some truth with comedy, & it nails plenty of aspects of long-distance relationships, timely setting that relationship against the backdrop of the struggling music & newspaper business, which is what keeps the couple apart.

Erin (Barrymore) is a 31-year-old graduate student, derailed by another relationship in the coursework of her 20s — now finishing a summer internship. He meets Garrett (Long), an worker of a struggling music business trying to stay afloat, in a bar after bonding over a game of Centipede. They have drinks, mock each others flirtatiously & ultimately sleep together, a hookup for which Garrett’s roommate (Day) provides the

soundtrack. Erin’s internship ends in five weeks, & he's to return to San Francisco, so they agree to keep it light, an agreement few have ever been able to accomplish. They fall in love, he's to return, & they spend the remainder of the film trying to make the East Coast/West Coast trip work with the occasional trip neither of them can afford, long-distance phone calls, the Net, & an awkward attempt at phone sex.

What I appreciated about Going the Distance, though, was that writer Geoff LaTulippe didn’t insert any boneheaded contrivances to keep the narrative afloat, although, as a result, the film’s first act momentum flags to some extent in the coursework of the second act. But the chemistry between the likable Long & the mostly lovely, side-mouth speaking Barrymore kept the proceedings lively , though it’s the supporting turns from
Sudeikis & Day that generate most of the fim’s comedy. & they are gold, people. It was also refreshing to see the characters discuss sex with more frankness, & considerably more profanity. It doesn’t compare to The Sweetest Thing, but there's a few moments of Apatowian crassness in the film, which works for the most part because it’s the kind of language you’d expect from Christina Applegate — who plays Erin’s older, protective sisters — & Drew Barrymore.

It’s not successful, however. There’s some mediocre marital humor, a bad running gag about dry humping, & an unnecessary fixation on Applegate’s character’s obsession with cleanliness, but it is a 2010 romantic comedy, so the occasional nods to broad humor are probably necessary for promotion purposes. Still, it’s a winning & engaging film, assuming you like the often bubbly Barrymore, though much of her flightiness is evened out to a degree by the welcome raunch.

Going the Distance is not a brilliant romantic comedy, but it’s a fun one, & sometimes — thanks to Sudeikis & Day — hilarious. Best of all, however, is that it doesn’t sacrifice character for laughs & even manages to squeeze in a few honest moments that will ring true to somebody who has tried to make a long-distance relationship work.