Going The Distance

The on-again-off-again couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long come together then go apart for this romantic comedy.

A long distance relationship is an interesting concept. I know a few people who are in such relationships and I find it interesting to see how they maintain it. I'm not sure I could do it. I suppose it would depend on the person and how much I loved them. It would be hard to make a sacrifice to keep the relationship together. As this film demonstrates one of the couple has to make a sacrifice to keep the relationship going. In some ways the story is designed to keep these two people apart but eventually bring them together at the end. I'm sure in real life things can be more complicated. The problem with this film, while exploring the main concept in an interesting way, is just not terribly funny. The success of Judd Apatow has brought about many copies. Romantic comedies that tend to go down the dirty path regarding jokes and not always successfully. His improvised style is also copied and not well. There is some fun to be had here but the tone of the film is a bit off. As I said the sexual humour has gone too far in this film and not in a good way. It is not necessary and does not make the film any funnier.

Drew Barrymore is a very likable actress. She has done many romantic comedies and I find the ones she does with Adam Sandler the best. In this film there is obviously chemistry between her and Justin and they do a decent job. Justin has certainly grown as an actor lately moving away from his nerdy earlier roles. The real highlight is Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. They have a great comedy duo thing going with many great improvised scenes.

Not the best romantic comedy but you may get a few good chuckles out of it. Maybe wait for DVD.