Hollywood seems to have rediscovered its love for the Christmas movie. In
recent years we've had Elf, Bad Santa, Christmas with the Kranks and The
Polar Express amongst others. This year those 'clever' bigwigs have tried to
meld the Christmas movie with the twentysomething broad comedy typified by
movies such as There's Something About Mary, and have come up with Just
Friends.
Chris (Ryan Reynolds) was an overweight teenager at school in love with
his best friend Jamie (Amy Smart). After sharing his feelings one night he
is rejected and told that he is loved... like a brother. Cut to 10 years later
and Chris is a new man. Attractive, slim, successful and popular with the
opposite sex, his high school self is a distant memory. When Chris is given
the task of babysitting Samantha (Anna Faris), a self-absorbed pop star, a
series of accidents leads them back to his home town. Reuniting with Jamie,
Chris tries to see if he can escape from the dreaded friend zone.
Just Friends plays with some interesting ideas. The reformed geek going
back home for the first time in ten years with still a bit of geekiness left
underneath the new image. The troublesome division between lovers and
friends. But a film which opens with Ryan Reynolds in a fat-suit singing
along to All-4-One's I Swear ain't aiming for anything overly thoughtful.
In what has been a successful year for comedy with the above-par Wedding
Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin doing big business, Just Friends falls
short of being a memorable addition to the genre. It's main problem is
that it relies too much on depressingly broad comedy. Not a scene goes by
without some sort of slapstick violence, and it gets tired well before the end.
Furthermore there's a mean streak which emanates in some scenes - but it is mostly held
back for the sickening sentimentality to seep through to the finale.
Reynolds is an acquired taste. He
does have a few good scenes when he's channeling his inner geek but mostly
his idea of comedy relies on over expressions. Amy Smart is painfully
bland and both are easily outdone by the wonderful Anna Faris. Constantly
threatening to break out and become a talented comic lead, Faris seems to be
happy enough to scene steal whenever she can. In Lost In Translation rumours
suggested her dumb actress role was based on Cameron Diaz, while her dumb pop
star role in this is rumored to be an Ashlee Simpson homage. Regardless of
her target, she eats up the scenery with ease and makes you wish the film was
based solely around her.
The merits are of setting this film at
Christmas, other than to increase its potential audience, are unclear. Just Friends isn't the worst comedy we've seen recently. In
fact it does have enough hints at something better to prevent it from being
a complete write-off. It just would be nice to see a comedy where the humour
doesn't predominantly rely upon someone falling over. Repeatedly.
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