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Going the Distance (2010) movie review by Kate

September 2nd, 2010 | 1 Comment

Going the Distance 2010

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Plot: Erin’s (Drew Barrymore) wry wit and unfiltered frankness charm newly single Garrett (Justin Long) over beer, bar trivia and breakfast the next… Erin’s (Drew Barrymore) wry wit and unfiltered frankness charm newly single Garrett (Justin Long) over beer, bar trivia and breakfast the next morning. Their chemistry sparks a full-fledged summer fling, but neither expects it to last once Erin heads home to San Francisco and Garrett stays behind for his job in New York City. But when six weeks of romping through the city inadvertently become meaningful, neither is sure they want it to end. And while Garrett’s friends Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (Charlie Day) joke about his pre-flight calorie-cutting and his full-time relationship with his cell phone, they don’t like losing their best drinking buddy to yet another rocky romance. At the same time, Erin’s high-strung, overprotective married sister, Corinne (Christina Applegate), wants to keep Erin from heading down an all-too-familiar road. But despite the opposite coasts, the nay-saying friends and family, and a few unexpected temptations, the couple just might have found something like love, and with the help of a lot of texting, sexting and late-night phone calls, they might actually go the distance.–© Warner Bros

Rating: R for sexual content including dialogue, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity

Genre: Romance/Comedy

Starring: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate

Director: Nanette Burstein

Running time: 1:37

Kate says – 2 stars “There are a lot of things that I really like about this movie. I like that this is a romantic comedy that doesn’t resort to the use of typical romantic comedy cliches. I like that the story focuses on both the male and female perspective, rather than the usual this is story about a girl who happens to have a boyfriend who is relegated to the role of an extra, or visa-versa. I like that the characters talk to each other and have conversations like people do in real life. I like Drew Barrymore and Justin Long in these rolls. They are comfortable with each other and for once the off screen chemistry of a real life couple translates to the on screen characters. Here’s what I don’t like about Going the Distance. It is raunchy…Judd Apatow raunchy. The movie has extremely racy and sexually explicit dialogue. The language is strong and crude. (Think Knocked-Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin.) It’s too vulgar for my taste, which unfortunately spoiled what could have been, for me, a great entry in the romantic comedy genre.”

Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune) says – 3 stars “The calculated sexual raunch (mostly verbal) in “Going the Distance” impinges on its hard-edged, soft-center charm, and that may be enough to throw various audience segments straight out of the thing. But screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe’s story of a recession-era long-distance relationship and its hurdles takes its characters seriously. Will Erin and Garrett appeal to everybody? No. They smoke pot and drink, sometimes obliteratingly, and the leads’ potential romantic rivals are set up in a pedestrian way. But I liked the movie mainly for Barrymore. The way she handles the crucial, early “I love you” moment (he’s saying it to her, and the camera shows us what she’s thinking), you think: This is one canny actress.” (read full review)

Claudia Puig (USA Today) says – 2 stars “With good chemistry between likable leads and some timely recession-era professional woes, Going the Distance should be more of a contender. But it stops short of the finish line, burying its romantic-comedy assets under calculated efforts to be socially relevant and vulgar attempts at humor.” (read full review)

James Berardinelli (Reelviews) says 3 stars “To date, no motion picture has adequately captured the soaring highs and devastating lows associated with a long distance relationship, but Going the Distance comes as close as any movie has. Nannette Burstein’s feature gets many of the highlights right, even if they are wrapped in the safety blanket of a traditional romantic comedy…It’s a nice, understated way to end the summer.” (read full review)

Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) says – 1 1/2 stars “Director Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes, American Teen) is a solid documentarian with no flair for the stupid (that’s a compliment). Rated R for “sexual content including language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity,” the movie has a decent premise: Can love survive between two people in dying professions (she’s in newspapers, he’s in music) who live in different places (he’s in Manhattan, she’s in San Francisco). Barrymore and Long are both appealing, but not enough to sustain audience interest… (read full review)