Review of Take Me Home Tonight (2011) by Anna B — 16 Apr 2017

Better than I was expecting, for the most part (I knew about the troubled release and poor reception, so I assumed going in that Dowse had creative control taken away from him or something); there's something endearing about the whole thing in the first half or so, with a fun set-up and interesting characters, and Dowse's fluid editing rhythms pulling you through the clichés.

But it falls apart in the second half, as the clichés get harder to ignore, the hijinks become wackier, and the characters reveal their frustrating lack of depth. It's also disappointing to see so many wasted opportunities to subvert the tropes, especially in the case of the Main Character's Object of Desire.

Maybe something like, she had a thing for him in school too, and was also making up her story of success just to get in with him. I mean, it didn't have to be that exactly, but something, anything, to show she has inner life and desires and isn't just Dream Girl that Main Character gets to fuck at the end, woooo, high five bro.

Teresa Palmer is absurdly gorgeous, but she has nothing to work with, and it gets more and more depressing as the movie goes on. With all that said I'm probably being generous with this score considering how annoyed I got with the plot towards the end, but, whatever, I still had a lot of fun in the first half.