One thing this serious-minded 2012 romantic comedy does is prove that Rashida Jones ("Parks and Recreation", "The Social Network") can carry a film. Like Debra Winger and Holly Hunter before her, she's one of those actresses who comes across as a little too smart for the room but still elicits affection when she allows herself to reveal her vulnerability. This must also be the way she sees herself since she co-wrote the screenplay with featured player Will McCormack (the stoner pal of Andy Samberg's character) and is in almost every scene of this movie. Fortunately it doesn't come across as a self-serving act of megalomania despite the character she plays. She's a type-A career woman, a celebrity trend-spotter who compulsively controls all her impulses, while Samberg plays a slacker graphic artist who's fine with not working for long stretches and repeatedly watches videos of the weightlifting competition from the 2008 Beijing Olympics for inspiration.
Directed with a surprisingly deft hand by Lee Toland Krieger ("The Vicious Kind"), the movie focuses on how these two characters, married but separated, remain an absurdly compatible couple whose failed attempt at marriage initially seems quite dumbfounding. They both contend they can divorce but remain best friends, an assertion that appalls best friends Beth and Tucker who are about to get married and can't understand why they won't move on with their lives. That's the simple premise, and the rest of the story deals with what happens when one starts to get serious about someone else and how neither is prepared for what it will do to their relationship. Their stop-start confusion is palpably played out amid a cool but lived-in LA that feels like an appropriate setting for this familiar story. Jones has Celeste carry most of the emotional burden, and she lends genuine likability to a character that could have otherwise been downright insufferable, which is a constant source of humor in the clever script.
Samberg is good in his first serious role although he sometimes seems too recessive to counterbalance Jones' energetic presence. Emma Roberts (Julia's niece, "Valentine's Day") plays Celeste's petulant Lady Gaga- wannabe pop star client Riley Banks with fervor and brings a nice edge to her scenes with Jones, while Elijah Wood has coiled fun playing Celeste's uptight gay business partner. Ari Graynor ("Conviction") and Eric Christian Olsen effectively play Beth and Tucker to their accustomed stereotypes. Chris Messina shows up yet again in a prominent supporting role, this time as Celeste's acerbic patient suitor in waiting. There are moments, scenes even, where I felt the movie was a little too satisfied with itself, but it usually recovers with amusing twists on conventional romcom situations mostly involving Celeste's inability to accept the inevitable. That, of course, places the pressure on Jones to deliver the goods as both star and screenwriter, both of which she handles quite well here.
Directed with a surprisingly deft hand by Lee Toland Krieger ("The Vicious Kind"), the movie focuses on how these two characters, married but separated, remain an absurdly compatible couple whose failed attempt at marriage initially seems quite dumbfounding. They both contend they can divorce but remain best friends, an assertion that appalls best friends Beth and Tucker who are about to get married and can't understand why they won't move on with their lives. That's the simple premise, and the rest of the story deals with what happens when one starts to get serious about someone else and how neither is prepared for what it will do to their relationship. Their stop-start confusion is palpably played out amid a cool but lived-in LA that feels like an appropriate setting for this familiar story. Jones has Celeste carry most of the emotional burden, and she lends genuine likability to a character that could have otherwise been downright insufferable, which is a constant source of humor in the clever script.
Samberg is good in his first serious role although he sometimes seems too recessive to counterbalance Jones' energetic presence. Emma Roberts (Julia's niece, "Valentine's Day") plays Celeste's petulant Lady Gaga- wannabe pop star client Riley Banks with fervor and brings a nice edge to her scenes with Jones, while Elijah Wood has coiled fun playing Celeste's uptight gay business partner. Ari Graynor ("Conviction") and Eric Christian Olsen effectively play Beth and Tucker to their accustomed stereotypes. Chris Messina shows up yet again in a prominent supporting role, this time as Celeste's acerbic patient suitor in waiting. There are moments, scenes even, where I felt the movie was a little too satisfied with itself, but it usually recovers with amusing twists on conventional romcom situations mostly involving Celeste's inability to accept the inevitable. That, of course, places the pressure on Jones to deliver the goods as both star and screenwriter, both of which she handles quite well here.