Call me crazy or just temporarily unhinged but yesterday evening when I decided to watch Wanderlust my intention to hate the movie fell flat. Was it offensive and outrageously abnormal in its illogical story lines and freaky characters? Yes. Was the acting on most parts just over doing the verbal insults? Yes. Was it all just couple of laughs during the whole movie? Yes. Was it pointless? Yes. But here comes the crazy: despite of all of this, I still found it lightly entertaining!
Much of the credit for my surprising position towards the movie (believe me, I am almost shocked!) is probably behind the love for the two main actors. Paul Rudd, who has done numerous movies with the writer and the director of the movie, David Wain, among the long list of collaborations with Judd Aptow, is the most likable person ever! I mean, even his very dirty and down to earth robust monologue in front of the mirror in Wanderlust was adorable because the guy simply can’t be offensive. Proof of his real life sweetness was actually shown in the blooper reel segment during the credits where he mumbled that he was grossing himself out. He was grossing me out too but in I good way I guess.
Second favorite is the Hollywood’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston, playing Rudd’s wife and like always, her typical character as an appealing romantic lead with some slight nudity on her plate. So there is no surprise, although, is it me, or have Aniston’s characters gone from sweet and cute to a little bit more vulgar? I guess her Horrible Bosses role opened a few new doors for her. Anyway, this being said, she was like every other character she’s previously put on the screen but I like her that way. Knowing what you’re going to get when she is in the movie is some what a down side but meanwhile it’s kind of a consolation as well.
Other memorable roles include Aniston’s real life partner Justin Theroux, as a villainish man, and Malin Akerman, who is yet again the sexy other woman. So from the point of view of the casting, it all falls into the pattern of familiarity and it’s playing it safe. As far as the plot goes, the main couple ends up at this hippie community, where all those weird people with those quirks that belong to those types of living situations, are like a one big family. While it all is held together with two parallel story lines it falls a bit short from the perspective of telling a realistic story because I have trouble believing that forgiveness is that simple. Though, I guess Wanderlust isn’t about that deep real stuff but mainly an attempt to make people laugh which on some level actually works out.
Humor in comedies is starting to become my enemy, it has been made into this constant need to curse at everything and with every possible ways. Then there’s the disgusting things like not cutting the umbilical cord and walking around with it (seriously, that happened!) and old nude people running around – why? Am I the only one who thinks those type of “laughs” are ridiculously cheap and hardly worth watching again? I’m guessing that I’m not the only one based on the fact that Wanderlust fell short in the box office with getting only $21 million while the budget was a whopping $35 million. Which is a high fall from Role Models (Wain’s previous movie) that crossed the $92 million bar.
In the beginning of the post I mentioned that I actually enjoyed it. Well, the entertainment factor was probably a temporary fluke but I guess those types of comedies are only effective when you have that mood. Luckily for Wanderlust, I was in that type of a mood but now as I had some time to think about it while writing this post, I am lowering my opinion just a tad.
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