Review: Going the Distance

There have been worries in recent years that the romantic comedy genre is dead or dying. Going the Distance could prove that theory wrong; the amusing romantic comedy tends to stay outside the confines of the typical rom-com formula.

For starters, Drew Barrymore's Erin is a potty-mouthed broad who holds the high score on the neighborhood bar's Centipede game. She's also focused on her career track, and the film (thankfully) doesn't treat this as a negative quality.

Thirty-one and currently in grad school at Stanford, Erin is finishing up her summer internship at a fictional New York City paper when she meets affable twentysomething Garrett (Justin Long), who works for a record label. They agree after their first night together that neither of them is looking for anything serious, but they meet up often during the six weeks before Erin heads back to California. They decide to attempt a long-distance relationship.

We see the fondness between the two characters growing, while their friends and family give them unsolicited advice on how to deal with a long-distance relationship. As the professions Erin and Garrett have chosen -- working for the print media and the music industry -- are hard hit by the economy, the recession plays a role in their story. Will they ever be able to live in the same time zone when jobs are so hard to find? Should either of them give up their career to stay in the relationship?

While this romance is the main storyline of Going the Distance, the supporting cast is a large reason the film is as funny as it is. The various bar table discussions between Garrett and his friend Box (SNL's Jason Sudeikis with an awful mustache) and roommate Dan (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Charlie Day) are absolutely hilarious. Indeed, it seemed that whenever Charlie Day was talking, I was laughing. Christina Applegate and comedian Jim Gaffigan round out the cast as Erin's sister and brother-in-law in California.

First-time screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe and director Nanette Burstein (American Teen, The Kid Stays in the Picture) deliver a film that keeps the laughs coming and never veers towards sappiness. If this movie is a sign of things to come, there's hope for the romantic comedy genre after all.

Note: While Going the Distance would be a nice date movie, it's got a good bit of raunchy comedy in it. I wouldn't recommend taking your grandmother, unless she's got a dirty sense of humor.