In Nanette Burstein‘s Going the Distance, Justin Long and Drew Barrymore play a couple stuck in a long-distance relationship. Erin (Barrymore) and Garrett (Long) are in New York at the start of the film, where he has a low-level job at a record label and she works as an intern at a newspaper. They meet in a bar, immediately hit it off, go back to his place for “the talk” about their favorite movies and end up in bed. At which point the camera chastely zooms out the window, in bizarre contrast to the raunchiness that sets this movie’s dialogue apart from others in the genre (according to Kirk Honeycutt “a pathetic attempt by a ‘chick flick’ to reach out to a younger and more male demographic”).
The first half hour of this film feels quite fresh (except for the obligatory ‘young love in New York’ montage) and does a good job of making the audience care about the protagonists’ budding romance. Another nice touch is that this first act concludes with the airport scene that we would normally expect at the very end of the story. The film “acknowledges this convention and slyly subverts it” (A.O. Scott). Because yes, Erin has to return to San Francisco to finish grad school. And as they are apart, Erin and Garrett start to realize they are in love and want to be together. But the economy being what it is, they face a struggle in combining their professional lives with their love life. Here, the film aims for “surface topicality” (Owen Gleiberman) but ends up being traditional: a suggestion of blogging as a career choice instead of writing for a newspaper is implicitly rejected as ludicrous.
Although the set-up is good, the movie doesn’t live up to its potential. There are some smart, genuine and sometimes hilarious scenes here. But the zest of these scenes clashes with the contrived way in which screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe lets the story unfold. It sometimes feels more like “a compilation […] than an involving romantic comedy” (Claudia Puig). No real attempt is made to make the romantic rivals interesting or threatening and when the big crisis arrives it doesn’t convince or stir any emotions. After that, the movie just fizzles out.
The performances of the leads don’t help either. Although Justin Long can display his “pleasantly offhand and quick wit” (Claudia Puig), his acting is too one-dimensional for some of the emotional depth that this film seems to be aiming for. And Drew Barrymore, while shining in some of the traditional rom-com segments (such as the “crucial, early ‘I love you’ moment” [Michael Phillips]) can’t really sell her character convincingly enough. When Erin laughs too hard at Garrett’s jokes during their first date it seems like a metaphor for Barrymore’s acting in this movie.
The best part of Going the Distance is the support cast, which is excellent all around. From Christina Applegate as Erin’s sister to Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as Garret’s best friends. Even Matt Servito in a small role as Erin’s boss at the paper gives a very enjoyable performance. This is a pleasant movie, but in the end it’s too formulaic to stand out from the crowd.
Cheat Cut 