Apart from acquitting himself well in the romantic scenes in Edgar Wright films, the perpetually charming Simon Pegg doesn’t have a great track record with respect to romantic comedies (see the dreadful “Hector And The Search For Happiness”), yet that could change with “Man Up,” a British romcom produced by Nira Park, Wright’s longtime producer. The script is written by Tess Morris and was featured on the 2011 Brit List, which bodes well.
Starring Pegg and Lake Bell, the film centers around a chaotic first date between a recent divorcee and a disillusioned singleton involving lost divorce papers, a stalker and some competitive indoor sport. You can probably guess who plays who. A StudioCanal chief called the film a “big UK, feelgood rom-com." The official synopsis:
Nancy (Lake Bell), is done with dating. 10 times bitten, 100 times shy, she’s exhausted by the circus. So when Jack (Simon Pegg) blindly mistakes her for his date, no one is more surprised than her when she does the unthinkable and just —- goes with it. It’s going to take a night of pretending to be someone else for Nancy to finally Man Up and be her painfully honest, awesomely unconventional self… but will Jack also Man Up, and be able to get over her duplicity? Best just to let the evening unfold, roll with the consequences, and see if one crazy, unpredictable, complicated night can bring these two messy souls together.
Directed by Ben Palmer, “Man Up” also co-stars Olivia Williams, Ophelia Lovibond, Rory Kinnear, Stephen Campbell Moore, Sharon Horgan, Harriet Walter and Ken Stott. While no U.S. date has been set yet, StudioCanal will release the film in the U.K. on May 29. The movie will also make it’s North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19. Watch the first trailer below.
