This movie makes me sad. Not because it’s a sad film, nor is it a bad film, it just could have been so much more. The opening is fast-paced and attention grabbing, with cameos from Emma Stone and Andy Samberg painting this in the light of Will Gluck’s last film Easy A and Saturday Night Live. This continues - adding Jason Segel and Rushida Jones to the mix - and you really get the sense that this is not a run of the mill romcom. However by around the 45 minute mark the pace slows and it ultimately becomes exactly what it is trying to poke fun at. It’s the type of film where you know the entire story line as soon as you here the premise - although at one point I thought they might end up being siblings, for that I blame Park Chan Wook and George Lucas.

Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis’ acting is energetic and enthusiastic as well and it is easily noticeable that the film is 90s idea adapted for a modern audience. The inclusion of Woody Harrelson in one of his more surprising but brilliant roles speaks volumes about the film as a whole. He is perhaps the most interesting character however because the film spends so much time on the central relationship every other character is regrettably two dimensional, as if they only exist to act as filler when only one of Timberlake or Kunis are in shot. 

There’s ample product placement in this film, Sony and GQ heavily feature, however I feel it works in the sense that it makes the film feel more realistic, with a film like this it’s integral that the spectator actually feels like this is a story that could have taken place in New York. In conjunction with the Times Square flash mobs and multimedia messaging it really does well to make you believe the story told - hey and it pays the bills.

I think this film’s fatal flaw is that it’s quite clear that not everyone working on the project had the same goals. Perhaps Gluck, Timberlake and Kunis were trying to make a film where the studio saw it as a great opportunity for a date night romcom. All things considered it’s one of the better films of it’s genre, it doesn’t exactly reach the heights of Knocked Up or Forgetting Sarah Marshall but it certainly beats whatever Matthew Mcconaughey and Jennifer Aniston are in right now. 

Also, I thought getting Patricia Clarkson to play a cougar in this film was a stroke of genius, you might know her from The Lonely Island’s Motherlover.

7/10 - Moments of brilliance save it from being just another romcom, but it certainly falls short of the spectacular.