Going the Distance

I saw Going the Distance this weekend. As instructed, I saw it in a theater. Unfortunately, it was a Canadian theater, which meant strangely few people laughed at anything. Seriously, my girlfriend and I were the only ones sometimes. So I really don't know what to say about how other people reacted.

Personally...I liked it. Much more than expected, in fact. The basic plot is this: guy meets girl (on the night he's just been dumped by a woman I'll talk about in a minute), girl is in NYC on a summer internship and moving back to California in six weeks to finish school. Guy and girl sleep together, decide to hang out with no strings attached, and of course fall for each other. Bad economy: how can either get a job where the other is? Plane tickets are expensive. What about all the other oh-so-tempting and local people; life without sex is hard!

I don't want to spoil it, but it all ends up okay. Oops.

Gender-wise, I don't believe it passed the Bechdel test, but maybe not on his end, either. That is, it's a romantic comedy. All the talking, between men and men and women and women and men and women is about romance. Although, having just typed that, the guy, Garrett (Justin Long, the Mac from the I'm-a-Mac-you're-a-PC commercials), does talk to his boss exclusively about work. So does the girl, Erin (Drew Barrymore, you may have heard of her)--but both of their bosses are men. Still, Erin is portrayed as a full human being whose wants, needs, and career are just as important as Garrett's. In fact, he says that she can't move across the country to wait tables when she's being offered a job at The San Francisco Chronicle. Of course, he also says something to the effect that he wouldn't be able to live with himself, which does make it seem like it's all about him still. And even though he hates his job, he never says, okay, I'll come wait tables while you work at an amazing newspaper.

The other female characters did not come off well. Garrett's girlfriend, the one he breaks up with in the opening scene, dumps him for not realizing that when she said she didn't want a birthday present what she meant was she wanted one but was calculating to not seem needy. Erin's sister Corinne (Christina Applegate) is obsessed with cleanliness and pretty bossy toward her husband--a "shrew" we might say. But, Garrett has a coworker, Brianna (Kelli Garner, who I recognized and it turned out was in a truly creepy Law & Order: SVU episode), who is very, very pretty, and dresses very, very nicely, and seems like the type who, though she has a long-distance boyfriend herself, might sleep with Garrett. But she doesn't. She doesn't even throw herself at him. I was really impressed by that.

In the end, Garrett does move to the West Coast--but on his own terms, doing something that he loves. Which is great, but I've seen enough films where women sacrifice. I kind of wanted the guy to this time.

Also worth noting: this movie is SEXUAL. And it's great. There is no insinuation that Erin is a slut for sleeping with Garrett right after meeting him. Their sexual needs are BOTH acknowledged, openly and freely and non-judgmentally. It was very refreshing. And, despite having been in a relationship, Barrymore and Long have great chemistry onscreen.

B+