Going the Distance Review: The RomCom Principle

I have a secret to tell. I actually like romantic comedies. Ok, let me rephrase that. I like GOOD romantic comedies, of which there are very very few. Hollywood has a tendency to find a successful formula and then rehash that formula with blatant disregard for anything approaching artistic merit, and the romcom genre is especially susceptible to this tendency. After all, one of the things that makes a romantic comedy so appealing to its target demographic (i.e. women) is the idea that despite all the trials and tribulations the main characters’ relationship goes through, true love will win out in the end. The ending is utterly predictable. What distinguishes a good romcom from the typical drek is the good ones will leave you guessing about that ending even when you know that ending is waiting for you like a long lost lover.

Classic movies like When Harry Met Sally (the real progenitor of the modern romcom) aren’t just good romcoms because the ending is predictable, they are good movies because they play with the audience’s expectations. Even up to the last minute, you expect the couple to get together for the happy ending, but you just aren’t sure how that can possibly happen. The final kiss that signals that climatic release is then a surprise even when it’s not.

While I certainly wouldn’t put Going the Distance in the same strata as When Harry Met Sally, it is still a movie worth watching. It’s also what I consider part of an interesting new trend in romcoms, the male-friendly romcom, which includes movies like (500) Days of Summer and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. All these movies are romantic comedies at heart, but instead of being typical treacly pandering to sappy Harlequin romance lovers, they have a sense of humor that leans to the scatological. Rather than shy away from subjects like the male love of porn, or the difficulties of phone sex, they use dick joke humor for comedic fodder that you might never find in your classic romcoms. When Justin Long and Drew Barrymore, separated by an entire continent, express their horniness, we get treated to a scene of the two trying to have a little reach out and touch someone session. I don’t imagine that type of scene would make its way into a movie starring Kate Hudson and the hunk du jour.

More important than immature male-centric humor is the onscreen chemistry between the main characters, and Going the Distance has this in spades. Justin Long, he of the Mac kid commercials, and Drew Barrymore, she of a much longer list of famous roles, work so well together. They are both completely at ease in their character’s skins as well as completely at ease in each other’s presence. They never miss a beat. They are likable characters and a likable couple, such that the audience wants them to end up together even when circumstance conspire to tear them apart. Spoiler alert: when they finally get together (and you knew they would… see the romcom genre explanation above), you are happy for them.

Guys, if you hate romantic comedies but have girlfriends or wives who love them, try to get them to watch this one. If you don’t like it, you hate fun. If they don’t like it, well at least you look like you were trying. And women, if you don’t like this movie, you don’t want a movie about real relationships, you want a fairy tale that doesn’t exist. Go back to reading Twilight books and hoping sparkly vampires exist because they don’t.

I give Going the Distance four (4) stars because that’s how real reviewers do it.

September 13, 2011 at 2:57 pm | Movies & TV | No comment

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