Like an Irish twist “Notting Hill,” the new rom com “Finding You,” now on VOD, sees a regular Josephine with dreams of being a star, fall for a movie star who wants nothing more than to be a regular guy.
After a failed audition for a tony New York City Conservatory, Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) decides to decamp to Ireland to live, work and study Irish music at her relative’s B&B. Because this is a rom com, on the plane she sits next to movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre). He’s on the way to shoot the latest instalment of his “Game of Thrones” style fantasy franchise. Thinking they’ll never see one another again, they harmlessly flirt. She falls asleep on his shoulder and he charms her as he gently wakes her up.
Let me remind you, this is a rom com, so they on the ground in the tiny Irish town of Carlingford, it turns out they’re staying at the same hotel! Who would have imagined?
Sparks fly, but there are complications. (Again, this is a rom com.) There’s a fake Hollywood romance with starlet Taylor Risdale (Katherine McNamara), a meddling manager and Beckett’s eager fans.
But love changes everything, and soon Beckett and Finley come together in a journey of self-discovery that will change both their lives.
“Finding You,” based on the 2011 young adult novel There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones, has all the elements of the dreaded inspirational rom com. There’s beautiful scenery that’s almost as good looking as the actors. There are also romantic complications, flirtatious behavior, boozy regulars at the pub, a dead relative or two and enough Irish clichés to make a leprechaun blush.
Everybody knows rom coms aren’t about the destination—we all know who will settle down with who by the time the end credits roll—they are about the journey. “Finding You” is all journey, like driving down a road you’ve gone down dozens of times before but they’ve put up a new billboard or two. You’ve seen it all before, but the scenery is nice.
The Return of the Secaucus Seven sees a group of college friends come together 10 years after they were arrested on the way to a 1970 peace protest in Washington D.C.
In the 1979 film they reminisce about the good old days, flirt and establish the basic theme of all reunion movies: “What’s a little reunion without a little drama?”
This weekend Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Taye Diggs and Morris Chestnut are part of a core group of college friends who put that theory to the test in The Best Man Holiday. As IMDB says, expect “long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited.”
The idea of seeing old friends and frenemies after a long break offers loads of opportunities for drama and comedy.
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion played their high school 10th anniversary get together for laughs. The pair of friends big up their post Grade 12 adventures in an effort to intimidate their old friends.
“Well, I thought the whole point of going to the reunion was to impress people,” says Michele (Lisa Kudrow). “I mean, how am I gonna impress anybody by selling ban-lon smocks at Bargain Mart.”
National Lampoon’s Class Reunion takes a different comedic approach to the subject.
Mixing murder with nostalgia, it’s the story of Walter Baylor (Blackie Dammett, father of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ singer Anthony Kiedis), an unhinged nerd seeking revenge during his 10th high school reunion as payback for a mean prank played on him during senior year.
“One more move and she gets a hole where she doesn’t need one,” says Walter.
Grosse Pointe Blank takes a more wistful approach to post school socials. John Cusack plays a mysterious graduate who has a life changing epiphany 10 years after graduation.
“You know,” he says, “when you started getting invited to your 10-year high school reunion, time is catching up.”
Complicating matters is his job. He’s a hit man.
“What am I gonna say? ‘I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How’ve you been?’”
He’s hired to bump off the father of his high school girlfriend for whom he still has feelings.
More somber is Young Adult, a Charlize Theron dramedy about Mavis Grey (Theron), a ghostwriter of novels for teens who accepts an invite for a baby shower from her high school ex-boyfriend, hoping that he will fall back in love with her during their reunion.
“Sometimes in order to heal,” Charlize Theron says, “A few people have to get hurt.”
Every now and again Charlize Theron has to remind us that there is more to her than flashy perfume ads. In “Monster” she showed off her dramatic chops. In her new film, “Young Adult,” she goes one better, displaying her rarely seen facility for dramedy, a pitch perfect blend of drama and comedy.
Written by “Juno” scribe Diablo Cody “Young Adult” centers on Mavis Grey (Theron), a ghostwriter of novels for teens. She’s a small town girl who made it big in the city, Minneapolis–or “Mini Apple” as he locals call it–but she hasn’t matured much beyond the teen queens she writes about. She was the pretty mean girl in high school who was used to getting everything she wanted. trouble is, she’s now 38 and things don’t come as easily anymore. When an invite to a baby shower from her ex-boyfriend arrives, she decides her route to happiness leads back to her hometown and the arms of her ex.
Like Jason Reitman’s other films—”Juno,” “Thank You for Smoking” and “Up in the Air”—”Young Adult” is character driven and as much about the drama as it is the laughs.
Theron isn’t known for her lighter roles, but reinvents herself as Mavis. She’s equal parts “psychotic prom queen bitch” and woman on the edge, teetering between narcissism and alcoholism. Theron nails the part to the wall. It’s rare to find a part that balances her etherial beauty against a tragic-comic premise. She has most of the movie’s best lines, wears too much make-up, likes to “get loaded” and casually sniffs glue. The casting may have seemed counter intuitive but now I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part. Hopefully this expansion of her range means she will never again say yes to movies like Aeon Flux.
Her love interest is played by Patrick Wilson, but the more interesting supporting performance by far is Patton Oswald as a guy Mavis used to ignore in high school. He’s funny, bittersweet and brings a great deal of warmth to the movie.
“Young Adult” can’t rightly be called a comedy. It’s not “Bridesmaids,” but will amuse and move in equal doses.
