Anyone who’s been in a long distance relationship knows that, by its very nature, it’s marked by dizzying highs when you’re together, painful lows when you’re apart and mostly by a tough middle ground that you learn to accept during the long stretches between visits. It’s a difficult road. But director Nanette Burnstein does her best to address those difficulties in the tonally strange “Going The Distance,” which wavers between raunchy R-rated comedy and tender relationship rom-com with halting success.
The film follows Erin (Drew Barrymore) who is in New York City for the summer interning as a reporter for a newspaper. Though not explored adequately enough, we learn offhandedly that the reason she’s a post-3o-year old intern instead of being well along in her career is that she unwisely put her career and schooling on hold in early 20s for a guy in a relationship that didn’t pan out. Then she meets Garrett (Justin Long). He works at a record label but hates the acts they promote, and worse, he’s just broken up with his girlfriend. Hanging out at the bar being comforted by his best friends Dan (Charlie Day) and Box (Jason Sudeikis) he meets Erin and sparks fly. She loves video games, wings and knows her random bar trivia and yes, they end up sleeping together. The next morning Erin makes it clear she’s only in town for six more weeks and doesn’t want anything serious, and Garrett reveals that he’s just out of a relationship, so they agree to hang out and keep things casual. Of course, at the end of the six weeks love has blossomed and as Erin returns to Stanford University, they agree to keep seeing each other and soon learn the difficulties that arise in a long distance relationship.
The main problem with “Going The Distance” is that it peaks emotionally within the first hour. We already know the two leads are madly in love so for the rest of the film, with no other major obstacle facing the young couple, we’re more or less stuck waiting for them to sort out their affairs so that one of them will move; either Erin to New York City or Garrett to the west coast. And that wait is a long one. Even at just over an hour and a half, the running time feels punishing as we keep waiting for the inevitably happy end.
To help fill up some time and add some laughs we get a gallery of sideline players to assist Barrymore and Long, two naturally charming actors that are utterly bland here. In addition to Dan and Box, who provide most of the film’s biggest laughs and raunchiest humor, we get Christina Applegate as Erin’s sister Corinne and Jim Gaffigan as her husband Phil. Talent like Kristen Schaal, Rob Riggle and Ron Livingston also pops up briefly to get a laugh or two and keep things from grinding entirely to a halt. And we suppose we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the film also plays as a long form commercial for indie rockers The Boxer Rebellion, the dream act that Garrett wants to sign to the label he works for. It’s too bad their music is so earnest, typical and strangely forgettable; there is nothing particularly unique about them that other bands don’t already do in every city across the country. It’s hard to relate to what Garrett sees in them other than they are a better option than the boy band he’s being forced to represent.
Burnstein, making her fiction feature debut after helming the documentaries “The Kid Stays In The Picture” and “American Teen” does an adequate if anonymous job here, though she does manage to shoehorn in one handheld, “on-the-street” -styled sequence for Erin and Garrett’s first date that feels like it’s from another film entirely. Otherwise, she handles the proceedings well enough even if the latter half of the film is little more than declarations of love, and pangs of frustration voiced over cell phone calls.
There is a kernel of an interesting film in here. At one point, Garrett flies into Palo Alto to visit for the weekend. While screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe uses the opportunity to get some broad laughs from some “Meet The Parents”-esque situations, we wonder how much funnier and truer the film would’ve have been if it was just set over those three days with Erin and Garrett trying to figure out how to overcome the obstacles of their relationship with humor and honesty. And how perfectly suited it would’ve been for Burnstein’s documentary style. But obviously, we can’t judge a movie for what it isn’t, and what it ultimately turns out to be is your standard rom-com with the two leads in different area codes and no real complications except for the prohibitive cost of airline tickets during peak travel times.
“Going The Distance” does offer some slight rewards for those who stick it out. Charlie Day’s agent should be ready to field a few more phone calls as the “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” star steals the biggest laughs in the film. And it’s nice to see Christina Applegate do her best to wriggle out of the straightjacket of the “wound-up sister”/Mother Hen role to deliver some big one liners as well. But the film leaves you wanting for a story deserving of its premise and as such, “Going The Distance” only gets you halfway there. [C]