Just Friends Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)November 24th, 2005
Just Friends
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 2.5 out of 4
Director: Roger Kumble
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Chris Klein, Amy Smart Screenwriter: Adam "Tex" Davis
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (sexual content including dialogue)
We've all of course been stuck in what Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) of Just Friends refers to as "the friend zone." "It's like the penalty box of dating," he says, "only you can never get out. You've become a complete non-sexual entity in her eyes, like her brother...or a lamp." It's a place everyone--young, old, male or female-- has been, and a place director Roger Kumble hopes audiences can relate to. His film attempts to dissect this romantic purgatory, but does so without heart or any sense of sentimentality. It reminded me of the romantic comedy (stress the comedy) genre that exploded in the late nineties and, five or six years later, imploded in on itself; films like Out Cold, Never Been Kissed, and 10 Things I Hate About You, that explored romance with a broad, gross-out sense of humor that sanded down the sharp corners of human emotion to, instead, make audiences laugh. Just Friends is, thankfully, at the better end of this genre's spectrum, but still dumbs the romance down to something of a clothesline for juvenile humor.
We first find Chris Brander in high school, composing a pivotal note to his best friend, Jamie Palimino (Amy Smart), in her yearbook. Chris is an outcast in school, presumably because he's a grossly overweight cheerleader, but has always had Jamie stand tall beside him. But of course, Chris is in love with Jamie and has chosen the night of their graduation to break the news. Things go south when there's an accidental yearbook switch and Chris finds his note being read by a dopey football player to a crowd of guffawing onlookers. He flees and we find him ten years later as a good-looking, womanizing, hotshot music producer in LA. His boss has charged him with the unpleasant task of producing the music of Samantha James (Anna Faris), a character that Ryan Reynolds described as, "Paris Hilton crossed with Britney Spears and a Vietnam Vet." Samantha feels inspiration will strike in Paris, the city of lights, and drags the unwilling Chris along with her. Because the two had a relationship some years ago, Samantha, the sex-crazed mood-swinging freak, feels the two should pick it up where the romance ended. Chris draws the line between womanizing and desperate loser however, and tries to defer her. Fortunately, Samantha accidentally lights a fire on the plane and forces it to ground in New Jersey, Chris' old home. Surprise, surprise, Chris runs into Jamie and the old flame is again lit. He now wants to seal the deal that he left hanging when he was humiliated back in high school in that miserable middle-ground called the friend zone. But now there's Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein). Dusty, back in high school, didn't even make it to the infamous friend zone, but now has had his acne cleared and guitar strings tuned to become viable competition for Jamie.
Ryan Reynolds needs to break out. He's a wonderful comedic actor that has been repeatedly cast in teenage popcorn flicks that fail to liken him to filmmakers and casting agents that could score him roles with real cinematic importance. With Van Wilder, Waiting..., Blade: Trinity, and now Just Friends, Reynolds' films have met continual opposition from the critics. He carries these films and does so with a brightly lit torch, but someday he's going to have to step out into the real world of film; a world where audiences actually enjoy his movies. And like always, with Just Friends, Ryan Reynolds is pitch perfect. Especially gut-busting are his scenes in the fat-suit. The end credits find an extended cut of Chris as he belts "I Swear" into the mirror with shameless audacity. Its cheap physical humor, but, frankly, it's funny as hell. And throughout the rest of the film--even scenes beside those spent within the fat suit--Reynolds manages to make even the most mundane of lines brim with character and unexpected humor. Amy Smart also does well as Jamie, the completely loveable girl next door, convincing us of her supreme naivety towards Chris' affection. Also, Chris Marquette as Brander's cheeky brother makes for some laughter, virtually reprising his hormonally sex-starved character Eli from last year's Girl Next Door. But the two other main characters, Dusty and Samantha, only serve to punch in some wonton, adolescent humor.
The two work only to distract Chris and Jamie from what we know will inevitably occur in the final seconds of the film. Clichés like this can work, but only if the reason for drawing out the inevitable is worth the film it takes. With Just Friends, the antics of Dusty and Samantha are simply rehashes of tired humor. Samantha destroys Jamie's family's epic Christmas light arrangement and is accidentally put on stage at a Grunge Metal bar while Dusty strums to the bubbly delight of Jamie's family, and rescues Chris from a freak youth hockey accident. The humor these two create is senseless, and pulls Just Friends away from its homely romance and further towards adolescent comedy.
Just Friends almost works, but only with its romance between Jamie and Chris. It's muted and peppered with unnecessary farce, but their performances show heart and nearly pull the film through. The film may have passed ten years ago, when the genre was in full swing; but now it'll surely become just another critically hated flash in the multiplex.
-reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
