A love triangle—sort of—among a man, a woman, and her son is the basis for this comedy with John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill. Reilly is sad-sack divorcé John, who’s surprised to be the object of a flirtatious pick-up, more surprised to find himself falling quickly for her, and perhaps most surprised at the strangely close relationship she has with the adult son.
One gets the impression that she, despite actually being the one to initiate things, has managed to avoid any serious relationship for the last 20 years, which seems unlikely, but both of the odd entanglements, with the son and with the boyfriend, are strangely believable. Jay and Mark Duplass (Baghead), the writing-directing team, like to have the actors improvise a lot. Sometimes, the effect of such improvisation is that the dialogue feels awkward and forced even when it’s funny. This is, to me, often the case with the Christopher Guest films (A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, etc.), for example. But here, everything is very natural. John’s attempts to mingle at the party are awkward, all right, but exactly in the way such attempts might actually be.
The story kind of winds up where I expect, but diverts meanwhile. It’s a tailor-made role for Reilly, a departure for Hill, and another strong character for Tomei.
IMDB link
viewed 6/8/10 [PFS screening]
No comments:
Post a Comment