My Movie Review: Going the Distance

My Movie Review: Going the Distance
2.5/5

Opening Statement: This romantic comedy follows the story of two people (played by Justin Long and Drew Barrymore) who fall in love within six weeks before Barrymore must leave back across the United States for a long time. They decide to handle a long-distance relationship. Meanwhile they struggle with common long-distance couple problems.


What's Good: I would almost call this your typical romantic comedy, but there was a bit more realism toward it. At times it followed the general format of a romantic comedy, relationship goes good, goes "great", uh-oh conflict and then we spiral into delusion before a happy ending. Very formulaic, however it doesn't ever hit that formula to hard. The best part about this flick is the dialogue, Charlie Day was very believable as the "eccentric" friend, I know that characters is cliche'd but in reality we all have one of them. We have Long and Barrymore with excellent chemistry and acting skills (didn't have to do much, they are already dating), actually for them it is really quite impressive, unfortunately 'Going the Distance's' mild tweaks on the formula to make a more realistic film, can't save the tired plot. And goddamn this plot is tired.


What's Bad: I guess I kind of covered my mixed feelings on the formula above....well...yeah..ANYWAYS. Going the Distance has a pretty slow pace, well I mentioned its realism. It tells the story of long-distance relationships in a very moderate way. Meaning this is pretty much what happens with most long-distance relationship, that or they end tragically. I guess I kind of spoiled the ending already, my bad, I probably just ruined your entire LIFE. I liked this cliche's ending though, primarily because I was rooting for this relationship to succeed the whole time. I'd say may main couple of negative criticism's would be it's highly forgettable, like most romantic comedies. Also they need to be concerned that their realism might drive audiences to boredom.


The Rant: Romantic Comedies....yeah....Forget it. No matter what I say they will keep coming.


Consensus: Going the Distance takes the very low rated romantic comedy genre and pushes it up to average. The characters are lovable with realistic actions and dialogue. However the film settles for cliche' a little too much to be properly recommended.