Monday 3 October 2011

What's Your Number? - review

What's Your Number?  Unfortunately for Anna Faris it is worse than her scandalous score of 20, not even as fun as a 69 but instead her latest comedy vehicle is strictly "romantic comedy by numbers".
I saw the trailer for this film last week in front of Crazy, Stupid, Love (incidentally much more romantic and funnier than this movie) and when Faris and Chris Evans have their first angry exchange across the hall, I sarcastically said to my friend "What's the odds they get together?" and then proceeded to correctly predict the punchlines to three jokes.
What starts out as a female take on the High Fidelity storyline of revisiting your exes, quickly throws ambition away to follow the standard rom-com formula.  Also, by having yet another rom-com set around a wedding, it draws unfavourable comparisons with the superior Bridesmaids, even recycling a couple of the same jokes.
I'm sure that in other reviews, a lot has been made over the central crux of the story, that Anna Faris's character worries she won't find a husband cause she has slept with 20 men.  Cue cries of "Whore", "Slut", etc yet if it the gender was reversed, no big deal.  I'm not going to be drawn into debate on sexism in the movies on this blog, my main problem with the number was that by trying to track down so many men, it doesn't leave any of them time to make any kind of lasting impression.  Actors like Andy Samberg and Martn Freeman are wasted, and there is a huge build up to the reveal of "the one that got away", so much that I weas expecting a major movie star cameo... but got some actor I'd never seen before, therefore not once placing the final outcome of the film in any doubt.

Chris was devastated to find out The Avengers had already been leaked online.
The central pairing generate some good chemistry and try to wring as many laughs as they can out of the script.  Faris is a talented comedienne who can normally work wonders with sub-par material (see The House Bunny) and Evans's stock continues to rise on the back of versatile roles in Sunshine, Scott Pilgrim and Captain America.
It's just a shame that the final film wasn't as the sum of its parts.

2 stars 

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