Going the Distance a Romantic Sensation
I’m in love with Going the Distance. Veteran documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein’s (American Teen, The Kid Stays in the Picture) first foray into narrative filmmaking, this romantic comedy is electric and alive in ways so vibrant and exhilarating I’m almost bursting with joy. Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe has offered up an adult, sometimes vulgar, frequently hilarious and almost always 100-percent honest story that held be positively spellbound for pretty much its entire 109-minute running time. Like I said, I’m in love with Going the Distance.
Justin Long and Drew Barrymore in Going the Distance © Warner Bros.
The setup is perfectly ordinary and routine. New York record label executive Garrett (Justin Long) meets newspaper intern Erin (Drew Barrymore) at a bar the very day he’s just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend Amy (“Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester in an amusing cameo). They connect immediately and what appears to be a one-night stand ensues.
Problem is these to really like one another. On top of that, Erin’s internship is ending and she’s heading back to Stanford to finish her degree in just six weeks, so the chances of the two developing a meaningful relationship are minute. And yet it happens all the same, the pair so smitten they decide to engage in a long distance courtship spanning the whole of the United States.
What I like most here is just how refreshingly all of this ends up being played. I’ve seen so many romantic comedies over the years it’s nice to find one that refuses to bow to conventions while still staying true to the genre in which it inhabits. Better, these aren’t two kids starting out, their adults in the early thirties realizing they have to start being adults even if some of those youthful urges still exist inside. They make decisions that a person can relate to, and even though the requirements of the genre sometimes get in the way of things I still became enraptured in their blossoming and multifaceted relationship all the same.
On top of that, the supporting characters, even with all their slightly too cinematic idiosyncrasies, worked so well I felt like I knew the pair’s respective worlds far better than I would have otherwise. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day (playing Garrett’s best friends Box and Dan) add just the right touch of comic counterweight, never overstaying their welcome and frequently saying things that add layers to story that otherwise might not have developed without them.
More of the same and then some can be said about Christina Applegate (playing Erin’s married with children sister Corinne). There is a familial potency to how she treats her young sibling, the almost hawkish way she feels compelled to look out for her hitting extremely close to home. She invests herself completely into the character to such an extent I almost forgot her and Barrymore weren’t actually related in reality, a couple of her scenes with Long dripping in an emotional urgency that struck a direct hit to my heart.
There are moments when the film does go a bit overboard, and while both Erin and Garrett flirt with cheating with another while the supposed love of their life is so far away it is almost as if LaTulippe just didn’t quite have to guts to take his characters very far down that particular road. There can also be something said about the almost cliché way the film wraps itself up, and while a humongous part of me wanted to see exactly what Burstein and company visualize a larger part also thinks it somewhat trivializes a remarkable act of courage and love on the part of one of the leads just a handful of scenes prior.
You know what I say about that? So what. By and large Barrymore and Long knock this one right out of the ballpark, the former real life couple showcasing a ferocious and fiery chemistry the burns right through the celluloid. They are dynamic together, the two saying things people actually say and relating like people in love, especially those engaged in a long distance relationship, often relate. I bought their give and take, could feel their love as it blossomed, both actors doing such a great job playing adult, everyday people involved in a whirlwind romance that as the film went on I more and more longed to remain a part of it.
Burstein has talent, and where many times documentarians can struggle making the leap to narrative filmmaking she seems to take to the medium like that proverbial fish to water. She showcases confidence behind the camera, allowing her actors room to breath letting them create characters as indelible as my next door neighbor. While there are some pacing problems near the end this never grows to become a problem, Burstein allowing the film to juxtapose from comedy to drama so subtly many won’t even notice that it’s happened.
Going the Distance isn’t a warm and fuzzy easy-going romantic journey. It has hills and valleys, peaks and plateaus. It spends almost as much time in the desert as it does in the savannah, and those expecting a timidly frivolous experience like the ones offered up in drivel like When in Rome or The Back-Up Plan can prepare themselves for disappointment. But for those of us who like their romances to have teeth and their comedies to have bite Burstein, Barrymore and Long deliver the goods and then some. Like I’ve already said twice, I loved this movie, and I think audiences hungry for something more than just the boringly usual status quo will undoubtedly feel the same.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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