Wanderlust

So I had been hearing about this movie for awhile but mostly because of the real-life couple, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux. When I heard it also had Paul Rudd in it and was a rated R comedy, I was on board. It opened back in February and only brought in about $20 million so far. It's produced by Judd Apatow, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, and the writer/director of the movie, David Wain (who also did Wet Hot American Summer). Those producers along with the other actors in the movie, Malin Akerman, the guy from MASH (Alan Alda), and some others, it had to be a good movie right?

The premise is about a New York couple, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, who lose their jobs right after buying a "micro-loft" in the West Village and end up driving down to Atlanta to live with Rudd's brother, played by Marino. Along the way, they find themselves an an "intentional community" (a.k.a. commune) and become interested in the wacky characters they meet.

Well the plot tries to be unpredictable with the sharp turns it takes from scene to scene, but overall it was pretty predictable. The characters were rather one-dimensional but I wasn't really expecting much depth to begin with. The problem was that some of the characters were just too over-the-top and lost some of their humor, (i.e. Justin Theroux (the leader), Kathryn Hahn (the bitch), and Kerri Kenney (the Swedish single mother?)). There was some good one-liners in there and an uber-funny scene where Paul Rudd talks to himself in the mirror, although I read that was improvised on set and not in the script. The story was adequate as was the humor.

The movie had so much potential right out of the gates. It had these super funny jump cuts with great edits to the credits and music and made jokes in themselves. Unfortunately, this editing style was forgotten after the beginning of the movie and the humor relied completely on the actors. The beginning was great and the rest of the movie, technically speaking, was generic.

I'm a die-hard fan of the Friends cast and will usually go support their movies. Jennifer Aniston did a pretty good job although most the funniest parts were her facial expressions. The drug scenes was almost not believable, as was the topless protest scene. Paul Rudd was Paul Rudd. I literally lol-ed at the mirror scene. I dare you not to. I didn't find Justin Theroux very funny as his character was too eccentric. Malin Akerman should have been given more scenes because she was probably the funniest out of the 'ensemble' characters. Oh, except Ken Marino and his wife which were adequately funny as well.

So, in the end, there were some funny parts throughout, a strong beginning, and good-looking funny people. It had the same vibe as Wet Hot American Summer, but since there were two main characters, the ensemble humor felt forced and contrived, but it did have some really funny parts in there. It's almost as if it tried too hard to write funny characters instead of letting the actors make the characters funny in their own way. It was okay. "Thanks, what is it? It's some sticks with orange peels glued to them".