The phrase “coming-of-age story” usually evokes a teenager, but some people take longer to grow up. So it is with Mike (Steve Zahn), who works in his parents’ Arizona motel and doesn’t seem to have done much else. When traveling businesswoman Sue (Jennifer Aniston) responds, with mild enthusiasm, to his comically awkward pass, he falls in love, possibly because this is the first time he’s succeeded. Just like the comedies Zahn (National Security, Daddy Day Care) and Aniston (Along Came Polly, The Break-Up) tend to appear in, their characters seem to be about ten IQ points apart, but Mike turns out not to be so much dumb as unsophisticated. And what seems to be a quirky comedy about a social misfit stalking an out-of-his-league do-gooder branches out into something more challenging to depict, which is characters that grow.
Stephen Belber, who wrote Richard Linklater’s brilliantly scripted, but entirely serious, Tape, doesn’t quite mesh the comic and serious elements in his directorial debut. After the semi-charming, semi-forced beginning, the funny scenes seem to alternate with the dramatic ones. It’s slightly awkward, but in the end film lives up to its billing as a “touching comedy.” (The tag line is a lame pun, but never mind.) Zahn, who also has a supporting role in Sunshine Cleaning, gets what is probably his best role, as a character belatedly making a transition to adulthood.
IMDB link
viewed 5/27/09 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 5/28/09
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