Wanderlust Movie Reviews
Two good comedies rolled into one decent one.
As I evolve as a critic and learn more and more about the film industry I discover things I never really realized as a simple movie goer. One is that any recent movie featuring Ron Perlman, in spite of his appeal as an actor, is likely to suck. Another is that post Holiday movie releases are the runts of the Hollywood litter. This is where films that movie makers are not really 100% sure are going to hit are relegated, each trying to be the big fish in a very small and murky pond. Never was that more apparent to me than last week when I had to sit through This Means War, Journey 2: Mysterious Island, and Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance.
However, that is not to say you can’t find decent films. They do appear. Unfortunately finding them is akin to having to go through your bowel movements to locate the gold tooth you accidentally swallowed. The film I did yesterday, Act of Valor, was decent as an action film (at least for those of us not interested in the tertiary aspects of films, such as story or acting), and, to my surprise, Wanderlust had me laughing quite a bit.
Let me say a few words about the main star of this film, Jennifer Aniston. I am a fan of hers, and not just because she has a face that breaks my heart and a body most 20 year olds would kill for. I saw her years ago in The Good Girl and realized she actually is fully capable as an actress. She is, in fact, talented in my opinion. I keep expecting her to make something worthy of an Oscar sometime soon. Unfortunately she doesn’t seem to be capable of finding the right script, as her participation in the horrible film Horrible Bosses shows. While I would term her performance in that role exactly what it called for, it was not a good vehicle for demonstrating your acting ability.
This film is better. There will be no Oscar buzz surrounding it, but at least I found it entertaining. She manages to demonstrate a nice range of acting ability while delivering comedy in a believable and realistic manner (much like a certain TV show about a close group of companions she used to be a cast member for). However, I will take issue with the fact that she filmed a topless scene that at the last minute she had them take out. The parts that are shown are pixelated, and that is a tragedy on the order of washing your new car only to discover what you thought was soap is actually paint remover.
Speaking of nudity, there was a lot of it in this film. Unfortunately the vast majority of it involved swinging man dong. What little else there was seemed to be all older women. This movie definitely earned it’s R rating, but not from nudity. Next time cast a hot girl willing to take her top off IMO.
OK, enough of my crude machismo. Let’s get into the movie. George (Paul Rudd-Parks and Rec, Dinner for Schmucks, Our Idiot Brother) is a corporate drone slaving away in NYC. His wife Linda (Jennifer Aniston-Friends, Office Space, the Iron Giant) is a woman who has yet to find her calling in life and has a laundry list of careers. Her most recent project was to make a documentary about penguins with testicular cancer, which she describes as “Happy Feet meets An Uncomfortable Truth” in a scene with some HBO executives that I found cuttingly hilarious. Her film gets rejected by HBO and George gets fired shortly after buying a tiny studio apartment. They lose the home and have to drive to Georgia to live with George’s crude, abusive older brother (Ken Marino-Gattica, Role Models, the Ten. He also has a writing credit on this film) and his alcoholic desperate housewife Marissa (Worst Enemy, the Back Up Plan, Parenthood). The drive itself is a kind of brilliant road trip/married couple montage that I felt was really well done. Along the way they try to stop at the Elesium Bed and Breakfast. While driving in they run into nudist Wayne (Joe Lo Truglio-Childrens Hospital, Role Models, Gullivers Travels. By the way, expect to see a lot of this guy in the movie, if you know what I mean) and wreck their car trying to get away from him. They end up at the B&B only do discover it is some kind of hippy commune (sorry-intentional community). They spend a magical night of happiness and free spirit (and pot). The next day they end up at the brothers house, where after a memorable day of abuse opt to go back and join the hippies.
At that point they kind diverge down separate spiritual pathways. The local hippy guru Seth (Justin Theroux-his IMDB page is broken. Justin, you might want to look into that. I do know he was in Zoolander) has the hots for Linda and works to seperate the two in a very passive aggressive manner. 
The founder of the community is none other than the great Alan Alda (Mash, Tower Heist. Mash image courtesy of the TV Show T Shirt category) who is a bit eclectic but very entertaining. There is some drama about the community losing it’s land so a developer can build a casino on it, but that is really secondary to the main story. Eventually George and Linda’s disparate interest create strife in their marriage. Hippy commune hijinks ensues. A lot more male genitalia than I generally like to see on a Saturday night is shown.
So what is my issue with this movie? Why am I not blaring it’s praises from the mountaintop? Well, mainly because there seem to have been two different comedy writers working in separate rooms on this film. The first thinks that insightful, sardonic wit and social commentary are the way to rock. The second is from the Change Up school of comedy writing and thinks the key to big laughs is excrement jokes and graphic birthing scenes. The two writing style kept shifting back and forth without warning. It was like watching TV with your significant other who seems enthralled by two different shows and changes channels back and forth constantly. The problem is both writers are right. During the fart and sex humor half the audience was laughing uproariously while the other half was cringing, and during the sophisticated humor the other half was chuckling appreciatively while the first half was scratching their heads in confusion and turning to groom the fleas out of their neighbors fur.
Anyway, the stars. Extremely talented cast all around who worked well together. Two stars. Decent story, if somewhat ripped off from a bunch of other “let’s join the hippies” movies. At least I didn’t feel it offending my intelligence. One star. A rated R comedy that didn’t just throw in a bunch of rated R junk to be like The Hangover. One star. Jennifer Aniston is super hot, as was another girl in this film (Malin Akerman-the Watchmen, the Heartbreak Kid, the Proposal). One star. Alan Alda. One star. There were a few scenes in particular, such as the driving montage and the HBO presentation, that I thought could be described as brilliant. One star. Overall surprisingly entertaining. Two stars. Total: nine stars.
The black holes. The whole “two writers” issue I bitched about earlier. One black hole. The writer who kept on sticking in the excrement humor really should have been fired. The film did not really need a lot of that sort of thing and honestly it detracted from the overall film. One black hole. The entirety of the drama for the main and secondary story goes more or less unresolved until the final ending montage, when conclusions are pulled from deep inside the writers ass. One black hole. Way too much male nudity. One black hole. Jennifer Aniston pulling her topless scene out at the last minute. Doesn’t she realize I have been waiting 15 years to see that? One black hole. Total: five black holes.
A grand total of four stars. Not bad for a rom com in my opinion, and since a lot of my black holes are related to either too much or not enough nudity if you have a different perspective on those issues you would probably rate this a little higher. Definitely worth your time, at least for this time of the year. Really good date movie as well, as the romance aspects actually seems to work well (I assume. I went solo as per usual). Nothing in the filming really seems to require a big screen, so feel free to wait for NetFlix if you are so inclined.
Thanks for reading. I am going to try to see Gone later tonight. Something in the trailers for that one have made me think it is going to suck, but I will try to enter into it free of preconceived notions. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. Feel free to tweet me there or send an email to [email protected]. You can also post comments here and if you don’t cuss and have a relevant point I will most likely approve it. Thanks again. Talk to you soon.
Dave
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