Review of Going the Distance (2010) by Shiira — 05 Sep 2010

Sexually frank talk behooves Kevin Smith films; talk that was sorely missed in last year's "Cop-Out", but is alive and well in the surprisingly foul-mouthed(and Smith-like) "Going the Distance", a film which could have been written by the zaftig poet of crass himself, who delivered "snowballing" and "ass-to-mouth" into the sex lexicon of polite mixed company.

In "Chasing Amy", a sexual orientation mind**** of a comedy, "Finger Cuffs", the nickname that Allysa Jones(Joey Lauren Adams) was anointed with in high school, describes a sexual position involving two other participants in the chamber; by comparison, Corrine's fetish is somewhat tame, but nevertheless, "Going the Distance" corners the market on "dry-humping".

Erin(Drew Barrymoore), a thirty-something newspaper intern/grad student never gets around to taking her sister's recommendation, preferring instead the real thing with her bi-coastal boyfriend Garrett(Justin Long), an A&R man for a record company, on the dining room table; and phone sex, a ribald imagining that never coalesces in their like minds because they're both control freaks.

While mutual masturbation can't begin to compete with fist-f******, "Going the Distance" has more things in common with the brilliant 1997 contemporary classic(starring Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil) than a dirty mind; it stokes the male ego, initially anyway, through the reactionary actions of the female lead.

(Also, Dan, Garrett's roommate, played by Charlie Day, bears a passing resemblance to Banky(Jason Lee), in regard to the unresolved feelings he has for Garrett that the "Bluntman & Chronic" co-creator owns, likewise, toward his buddy Holden.

) Even though Erin makes it perfectly clear that she regrets having chosen love over a career, the late-blooming journalist is willing to reject a job offer(the Metro desk at the San Francisco Chronicle) for Garrett, just because he asked her to.

The same male worship that distinguishes "Chasing Amy", in which Holden's ego is flattered when Allysa falls for him, despite being a card-carrying lesbian. Because of the times, with print journalism jobs(newspaper and magazine) in such short supply, Erin's sudden loss of ambition is galling, and perhaps, offensive to people who harbor dreams about owning a byline.

She should recognize her schoolgirl-aged mistake before Garrett does, but "Going the Distance" is the sort of retrogressive film where the man sets the woman straight, like Michael Curtiz's "Casablanca", in which Humphrey Bogart orders Ingrid Bergman onto that plane, because she's a "kid"(as in "Here's looking at you, kid.

"). Surprisingly enough, a woman was behind the helm of the patriarchal "Going the Distance"; she's like the Kathryn Bigelow of romantic comedies.