Review of Just Friends (2005) by Natasha N — 28 Apr 2009

The romantic comedy JUST FRIENDS stars Ryan Reynolds as a former high school geek turned trendy Los Angeles music executive. When he gets stranded in his New Jersey home town due to bad weather with a superstar singer he is trying to sign, he finds himself reunited with his high school crush and discovers she is his true love.

If Just Friends were a swimming pool you wouldn't want to dive head first...it's shallow...very shallow...possibly one of the most superficial films in existence, and never even attempts to redeem itself but hey we live in a Superficial world so maybe that's okay. Fortunately for Roger Kumble one of the most influential, up and coming stars of future years saves his film completely and utterly and that is Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds shined for me and completely blew me away as family man George Lutz who becomes possessed with demons in his house in The Amityville Horror. His performance proved that Reynolds is far more than a comedian. Tack on to that his wise cracking, kick butt action role in Blade Trinity, and the terrific role he played in the indie film that I thought was awesome Foolproof...Reynolds is fastly becoming a real somebody. Just Friends is definitely more back to his roots of the slapstick, physical comedy he was originally known for but it's still just a lot of fun.

Anna Faris is the glue that held this film together. Without her, the movie would be trite, mundane and tiresome. All the actors did a fine job, and Roger Kumble made the best out of a weak script. Nevertheless, I did not buy the story. Jamie is a self-indulgent, narcissistic little reprobate. She does not care about Chris and uses him because he fits perfectly into her comfort zone. When they're not watching "Party of Five" or practicing their cheers, she's "getting it on" in somebody's love truck. When Chris leaves the graduation party, she makes no attempt to contact him during the following ten years.

I had real issues with a lot of the script. I can tell this script was touched by studio hands and that execs were screaming "We need wacky characters! We need contrived scenes involving kids and Christmas ornaments!" The story had a strong core, which involved the longing of Chris for Jamie, but is muddled by the introduction of Cartoon character Samantha (Anna Faris) and typical jerk Dusty (Chris Klein).

JUST FRIENDS was a hugely disappointing comedy that had the potential to be something really special but lost its way somehow. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as a former fatty who returns to his small hometown in New Jersey ten years after graduating from high school...rich, successful, and most importantly, thin and attempts to rekindle a romance with a girl (Amy Smart)who kept him in "The Friends Zone" in high school. The expected story path where the newly skinny person returns home to show off the new and improved version of himself goes terribly awry here because our hero is just not very likeable and it's not the way he's written or the way Reynolds portrays him...it's a perfect melding of both. This character does some really unpleasant things and treats everyone in his path in a very shabby manner and Reynolds'performance is so over-the-top that it grates on the nerves. There are two memorable supporting turns by Anna Faris as a wigged-out client of Reynolds and Christopher Marquette as his little brother, but otherwise I'd take a pass on this unpleasant and unfunny film experience that works extremely hard for laughs but generates precious few.