‘That Awkward Moment’…Indeed (Movie Review)
That Awkward Moment: 2 out of 5
Jason: If you’re single, we’re staying single with
you!
A few days ago I was discussing the HBO series Entourage with some friends and going
over how it began as a fairly entertaining series, but eventually amounted to
some conflict that could be extinguished with the simple mantra of, “Vince and
the gang are going to be alright.” The
show mainly relied on the easy-going dude chemistry between the guys (and
Jeremy Piven), as they lived lives of luxury in Hollywood. While the setting and premise are very
different, That Awkward Moment had me
thinking of Entourage quite a
bit. This dude-focused romantic comedy
has fairly low stakes, features a group of people who are all fairly successful
and especially well-dressed, and it never seems like there is much going on to
threaten their existence. I am not
saying the world needed to be crashing down around them, but it is a fairly standard
comedy that was rarely very funny and essentially amounted to the mantra of, “Zac
Efron and the gang are going to be alright.”
Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan star as three
best friends. Efron is Jason, a womanizer,
comfortable with being a charming guy that does not seek relationships (he
tells us plenty more of his philosophies on relationships via voiceover). Teller is Daniel, another womanizer, who
works with Jason, and has his friend Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis) help him hook up
with girls. Jordan is Mikey, a successful
doctor, whose marriage to Very (Jessica Lucas) is about to end, which puts him
back at square one. Jason and Daniel
make a deal with Mickey to stay single with him, in an effort to just have fun
and avoid complications. This plan goes
south pretty quickly, as the guys find themselves getting inadvertently involved
with different women. Jason, in
particular, strikes up a relationship with Ellie (Imogen Poots), who seems to
be everything he actually wants, which of course throws him off his regular
game. Awkward moments abound, as the
film continues on.
I can stop there, as the plot is pretty easy. The appeal of this movie is supposed to be
its cast’s chemistry, which does work.
Efron, Teller, and Jordan all work well together. They play well-adjusted and well-groomed
guys, which is almost too much of a stretch because of how great their lives
outside of relationships seem to be.
Still, their interactions are the highlights of the film, as they are
the only times when the film’s dialogue feels natural. The female characters in this film are about
as complicated as a dude-focused romantic comedy needs them to be, but they at
least get to show some signs of intelligence, when it does not revolve around them
needing some lovin’ from one of these guys.
The problem is how easy this all seems in a film that never balances its
simple story out with being anything more notable.
Again, a film like this does not need to try all that hard
to make conflict seem truly important, but it should at least aspire to be something
fairly creative and it really doesn’t. That Awkward Moment mines a lot of
comedy out of riff sessions between the three guys and then uses a lot of
seemingly clever and very “written” conversations when it comes time to separating
these guys and have them interact with their various female counterparts. Written and directed by Tom Gormican, yes, he
is able to capture the chemistry on screen, but the dialogue really is not all
that clever and when it tries to mesh the humor with the more “meaningful”
moments, it feels rather contrived. Sure,
knowing where the story is going does not take a lot of effort and the film
does not seem to think it is about to surprise its audience, but at the same
time, capturing today’s twentysomething generation can only go so far if the
comic beats are only hit so often and the emotion feels false.
As far as the leads in this cast goes, Teller and Jordan
have obviously found a lot of praise in the time leading up to this film, given
their work in The Spectacular Now and
Fruitvale Station, but the film
really wants to put the most emphasis on Efron, who is unfortunately the least
equipped to handle the more dramatic parts of this film. It may not be him, as I have little to go on,
as far as his acting talents are concerned (never saw his more popular films
and he was pretty decent in the otherwise terrible The Paperboy), but with the film providing us with a lot of time to
focus on his redemption, it became pretty tiresome. Teller and Jordan fair better, given that
they are both quite talented. Teller can
be a bit of a mixed bag at times, because the guy obviously has a knack for
talking in that fun, bouncy way that made Vince Vaughn, among other similar
actors popular. While I couldn’t stand
Teller’s shtick in 21 & Over, it
is better placed here, as it there is more of an attempt to delve into this
character. Jordan is not really known
for wacky, crude comedy roles, so it is not that surprising that he is the most
balanced individual, who does not wind up in crude, awkward situations. With that said, he is fine here, despite having
to be more of a reaction man to the other guys, while dealing with the most
dramatic of the three stories, which is given the least amount of time to be
fleshed out.
While mildly amusing at points, That Awkward Moment did not do much for me. The cast is likable, but I have to continue
to put emphasis on how comically fantastical their lives seem to be, given the
nice locations, well-kept nature of the characters, and other aspects that
really emphasize the New York setting, which really wants to call attention to
itself. Regardless, the film does not go
overboard with raunchy antics, but even in its attempt to be a fun distraction,
focused on guys of a certain generation, the film lacks much strength to earn
huge laughs or affecting drama. No
worries though, because I’m sure Zac and the gang are going to be alright.
Daniel: Hey, come here man.
Mikey: Do not hug with no pants on.
Mikey: Do not hug with no pants on.
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