Review - "I Give It A Year"

"I Give It A Year" - directed by Dan Mazer

Not only sporting one of the stars of hit comedy "Bridesmaids" (Rose Byrne) but brandishing a poster that looks similar to that film's, "I Give It A Year" arrives with a highly effective trailer and a bunch of glowing review snippets in its wake.
I've written several times about the disparity that often occurs between trailers and the final movie.
"Hilarious" wrote Glamour.
"Absolutely Brilliant - the Funniest British Film in Years" GQ added.
I'm as wary of review quotes on posters as I am of trailers.
It's all advertising of course which means that the truth is often in short supply.
Ultimately we must make our own minds up.
Romantic Comedies are interesting beasts to me.
They seem obsessed with concept...
'What if the hottest Hollywood actress fell in love with a normal guy?'
'How about two friends tired of losing at love agreeing to be bonk buddies?'
'Wouldn't it be funny if a we did a bunch of stories set on Valentine's day and loaded it with big name stars?'
So right there we have three separate examples of concepts that produced an excellent movie, a mediocre one and an absolutely terrible one.
And so it is with the genre - you never know what you are going to get.
Of course this is true with pretty much any movie but personally I find the romantic comedy the hardest to pick before the fact.

And so we come to "I Give It A Year".
The concept here is that a couple get married after a mere seven months together and find themselves struggling after less than a year.
Told largely in flashback in a marriage counselor's office we start with a brief meeting sequence followed by the wedding at which the brides friend Naomi (Minnie Driver) gives the marriage a year.
I'm going to ignore what a supreme bitch this character must be for a moment in recognition of the filmmakers desire to have the title used in setting up the story.
And set it up it does.
For me it is a hard sell because watching a relationship crumble before my eyes is no fun at all.
I'd much rather see one develop than dissolve.
It puts added pressure on the movie to deliver in the comedy stakes - we need something to stop us feeling as miserable as the poor sods going through the torture of a relationship on the rocks.
I can see a checklist of comedy requirements here.
* Wedding speech.
* Awful best man
* Friends with interesting relationship that offer advice
* A terribly awkward mix up of some sort
* An incompetent doctor / priest / waiter / pyschologist...
Tick times five.
In fact all of the above are shown in the trailer.
Sadly a couple of moments that looked very funny are missing.
What is left are a bunch of comedy bits that work well enough most of the time but that suffer from a problematic lead character.
Rafe Spall is a good actor but playing Josh he is given one of the most unlikeable rom-com male leads I can recall.

Rafe Spall as Josh (far left and far right)

Josh starts out as an average, slightly awkward sort of guy but as soon as he is married turns into a lazy, slobbish doofus.
I was reminded of Jack from Nash Edgerton's excellent short film "Bear".
Whereas that character's comedic raison d'etre was to be an idiot Josh is supposed to gain our sympathies.
It was not long into the film that I wondered what the hell Rose Byrne's Nat was thinking staying with him.
With the arrival of suave, intelligent, handsome, considerate Guy (Simon Baker) Josh looks even worse.
Here is a movie with a central relationship that no one in their right mind would root for.
Josh's former girlfriend Chloe (Anna Faris) is also on the scene meaning that both leads have temptations in the form of far more suitable options.
Chloe is sweet and nice and pretty but like Nat is also way too good for the terminally dickheadish Josh.
Compare this to "Notting Hill" - one of the finest example of the genre - where the lead is a bumbling, awkward man whose heart is nonetheless in the right place and is surrounded by good, decent friends.
Josh has Dan played by Stephen Merchant.
This is a character who exists solely to deliver a cringe worthy speech and periodically crop up to make lecherous advances on whatever woman is unfortunate enough to be within sliming range.
Dan does serve to make Josh look a little better by comparison - I'll give him that.

Stephen Merchant as Dan

His main function of course is to deliver the laughs and the usually reliable Merchant isn't entirely successful.
The script has a number of good ideas in terms of situations ripe for comedy but they don't come off as well as they really should have.
The Dan character provides several good examples.
His best man speech is too self aware of its own comedic importance and feels crammed in.  Had it been hilarious it may not have mattered but it induces smiles rather than laughs and counts as a missed opportunity.
Likewise the awful Marriage Counselor played by Olivia Colman is one note and way too obvious.
Compare this to the terrific Jane Lynch's playing of a similar role in "Two And A Half Men".
Clever dialogue matched to a well formed supporting character.
Colman is just required to smile awkwardly one minute and rage profanely the next.
On paper it may look like comedy gold but in practice it is too self consciously a ploy for laughs that produces very few.
It's not all bad news.
Rose Byrne is insanely pretty even by her own normal high standards in such matters.
The bedroom scene in which she role plays as a Real Estate Agent should make any red blooded male sit up in his seat.
Clearly she is too good for Josh but thanks to Byrne's inherent likeability and talent for this sort of thing she makes Nat appealing.
In lesser hands the character could come off as superior or stuck up.

Rose Byrne as Nat

The ongoing schtick in which she gets song lyrics wrong is funny and to her credit the awful Starship song "We Built This City On Rock N Roll" sounds much better sung as "We Built This City On the Wrong Damned Road".
Despite featuring heavily in the trailer the mix up with the inappropriate holiday snaps and the digital photo frame works well and is a clear highlight.
For me however it is Anna Faris who deserves most praise.
She has starred in some dire stuff over the last few years and it is too easy to forget how skilled she is in comedic roles.
Refer to her guest role in the final season of "Friends".
Ironically as Chloe it is the more dramatic elements that she excels at.
It's quite a thankless role purely about supporting the central idea that the leads may not be right for each other but she adds a lot to it.
I don't have a clue as to what Chloe sees in Josh but still.... nicely done.
Similarly Simon Baker's character Guy is so perfect that it makes poor old Josh seem like he belongs in a totally different movie.
He's aware of it too and comments on Guy's physical attributes every time they meet.
It's yet another annoying trait of a character who becomes unsympathetic very early on and never quite recovers.

Simon Baker as Guy and Anna Faris as Chloe

The biggest problem apart from a lack of consistent major laughs is a central relationship unworthy of audience investment and peripheral characters give short shrift in terms of depth.
There's a bitch, a hunk, a cutey and a psycho.
That's what they are- nothing more.
A lack of detail to the characters is one thing - a lack of comedy resulting from them quite another.
There is an excellent comedy in here somewhere but most of the really good ideas are poorly realised and make more noticeable the faults.
Chiefly that the lead male character is just an idiot unworthy of the attentions of either female suitor.
It doesn't matter who he ends up with- they are simply too good for him.
It's baffling as to why Chloe would still have feelings for him and it is never explained.
Sometimes we can just accept such attractions but in this case it really needs some explanation.
I've been pretty critical of this movie but it's only because I wanted it to be as good as the promise that the trailer shows and that the acting talent involved would indicate was possible.
It's better than "Friends With Benefits" or "Just Go With It" but falls pretty far short of the best examples of the Rom-Com such as "Crazy Stupid Love" or "Notting Hill".
Fun enough - just not quite funny enough.

Rated	M for nudity and some profanity
Running Time:	97 minutes (1hr, 32mins without end credits but stay for a few extra bits)
Starring:

Rose Byrne	--- Nat
Rafe Spall	--- Josh
Anna Faris	--- Chloe
Simon Baker	--- Guy
Minnie Driver	--- Naomi
Jason Flemyng	--- Naomi's husband
Nigel Planer	--- Josh's Father
Stephen Merchant	--- Dan
Olivia Colman	--- Counselor
Jane Asher	--- Nat's Mother
Anna Skellern	---Shop Assistant