Review of If I Were You (2012) by Jesse O — 02 Jan 2014

Only reason this movie gets the rating it does is because of Marcia Gay Harden's performance and Leonor Watling's charming presence. Other than that, I think the script, while having a good idea about marriage and how stagnation pushes someone to pursue an affair and how the person that's being cheated on deals with that, but I think the movie has some jarring tonal shifts.

Sometimes it's a goofy romantic comedy and sometimes it's a Lifetime drama. This isn't bad in theory, it's the execution that leaves a lot to be desired. At times it feels like you're watching two completely different movies with its shifts in tone.

It feels like what ended up on screen was the first draft of the script and it wasn't refined or improved upon with more time spent on actually fleshing out the characters. Thankfully, again, Marcia Gay Harden's performance makes it more than watchable and there are definitely some funny moments, mostly from the director of the play, and moments of insight.

It's just that those moments of insight are certainly less that the moments of hilarity. I think some moments are only funny because of the cast and not because it's actually a well-written joke.

The film is also unnecessarily long, the exposition, with Madelyn meeting Lucy goes for at least 20 or so minutes. It didn't really need to be this long, and it starts the movie off on a sour note.

Again, I think Marcia and Leonor make most of this work with their chemistry and their friendship feels genuine, it's one of the few parts of the movie that felt genuine, but the script lets them down with its script that doesn't know how to maximize this film's potential for comedy.

Still, this movie is fine. I'd say it was a bit of a letdown, but I went in with no expectations. It's below average at best.