3 stars (out of 5)
Another relationship-intensive dramatic/comedic character piece set in New York City, this offering from director Christian Ditter (and a bunch of screenwriters adapting Liz Tuccillo’s book) has an edge of melancholy not usually present in this sort of shtick, but it spoils things with too much cheesy silliness. And yes, we are looking at you, Rebel Wilson!
A bunch of types weave in and out of various romantic predicaments: there’s Alice (Dakota Johnson of Fifty Shades Of Grey doing another meek ‘n’ mousey routine), who decides she needs a break from her longtime boyfriend Josh (Nicholas Braun) and regrets it; there’s Robin (Ms Wilson), the full-on boozy root-rat gal Alice meets at her law firm workplace; there’s Lucy (Alison Brie), an improbable singleton dating a lot and agonising more; and there’s Alice’s big sister Meg (Leslie Mann), a workaholic doctor who’s been long committed to not having kids – until she looks into a baby’s big googly eyes and suddenly changes her mind.
Oops, and there are some guys in there too: man-whore bartender Tom (Anders Holm) tries it on with several of the ladies, while Ken (Jake Lacy) eventually goes for Meg at a Christmas party, and then there’s David (Damon Wayans Jr), who might wind up sweet on Alice. And if you’re also suspecting that the gormless Josh will come back pining for Alice and whining about missing her boobs then you really should be making this sort of ‘Chick Flick’ rather than just watching it.
None of this is especially fresh or original but Ditter coaxes some good work out of his cast, with pleasing performances from Mann, Holm, Wayans (believe it or not) and Johnson, who’s so ridiculously cute you do tend to wonder why she’d be single for five seconds in The Big Apple. But that’s not the biggest problem here: that’s the need to stop anything too serious or moving (the audience supposedly doesn’t want this to be too realistic, of course) and throw in lots of Gale Force 10 Rebel Wilson-ing. We definitely need to see other people…
I Wake Up Screening 