The “opposites attract” vein of romantic comedies has had a pretty long run. And the schlubby dude who hooks up with the highly professional woman has a bunch of clichés that can get annoyingly repetitive – he always has to loosen her up and she always has to make him grow up. This doesn’t completely avoid the cliché (she’s the secretary of state preparing for a presidential run, he’s an investigative journalist whose political convictions have made him fairly unemployable), but it does at least present her transition as being more about reigniting her political convictions, and him getting a political awakening about the necessity of understanding other perspectives. And it’s very willing to point out exactly how unlikely the pairing is, letting the dawning romance take at least an hour or so to simmer before breaking to the surface.
I do tend to find Seth Rogen reasonably likable though not necessarily as funny as he thinks he is, and Theron gets a chance to play a role that’s a little less formally contained. And there’s some nice performances in the supporting cast as well. But I don’t think this will go down as revolutionising or resetting the romantic comedy – it’s more a comfortable wallow in some familiar tropes with a couple of modern remixes here and there. But I enjoyed its gentle ways – while, yes, it could definitely stand to be a little more politically barbed here and there, and there’s a distinct flavour of both-sides-ism towards the end, it’s a reasonable exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment