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Drew Barrymore Going the Distance Going the Distance movie Going the Distance review Justin Long long distance relationship Movie Reviews Nanette Burstein
The first feature film to be directed by documentarian Nanette Burstein, Going the Distance is a romantic comedy that realistically portrays the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship. The plot is pretty simple and involves nothing particularly new or exciting but it is the characters that make this film engaging.
Erin played by Drew Barrymore is a thirty year old journalism student has recently got her life back on track and is doing a summer internship in New York at a newspaper. Justin Long plays Garrett who lives in New York and works in the music industry. They meet at in a New York bar one faithful night, have great chemistry and enjoy six weeks of no-strings attached frivolity. During their bittersweet parting, they agree to a long-distance relationship. As with all long-distance relationships, the cracks begin to show and the couple realize that living at opposite sides of the country is even further than it seemed. The temporal structure of the film skips through the months when the couple are apart which makes an interesting comparison between New York and San Francisco at different times of the year- New York paces through its seasons while San Fran stays sunny throughout. The only time we do see it rain there is to reflect a pathetic fallacy of apartness.
Something is definitely missing here though, there seems to be a couple of subplots that go absolutely nowhere almost as if they were edited out which leaves a bit of a hallow feeling towards the end. The strength of the movie is its portrayal of the rational choices that people have to make between their relationships, careers and home ties. While Going the Distance doesn’t remotely shatter the generic conventions of the rom-com genre, it is not overly sappy and provides enough laughs and vulgarity to ensure that it doesn’t simply appeal to a female audience. It does follow the pattern of a rom-com pretty rigidly and as such there is plenty of comic relief from the best friend characters Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis (Floyd from 30 Rock). Christina Applegate plays Erin’s uptight older sister who acts as the voice of reason and sanity throughout.
Drew Barrymore is the savior of the film projecting her usual captivating self. Although her character doesn’t differ much from the humorous ‘one of the guys’ party girl that she has portrayed in many rom-coms before, she fits the role perfectly. Overall, this is an entertaining romantic comedy with nothing entirely different to offer but a very likable movie all the same. With some great characters, nice chemistry and a few vulgar laughs, you’ll know what to expect but you’ll enjoy it all the same.
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I often find that with movies like this the trailer makes it out to be much funnier than the movie actually is, but I’d probably watch it if it was on a plane or something, but doubt I’d bother seeking it out to watch it. Which is a pity, because I do love Drew Barrymore.
Actually, there’s a lot of laughs in this film that aren’t in the trailer at all so it’s a pretty good comedy. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re a fan of Drew!