Review of I Give It a Year (2013) by Jesse O — 27 Aug 2017

I've started out with this sentiment in a review, on Flixster, for Mindhorn. The normal quote, usually, goes: 'Pizza is a lot like sex. When it's good it's really good and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

' The reason I mention this again is simply because of the fact that, to me, a lot of British comedies (or rom-coms as is the case here) end up being pretty good even if they're amazing. I just find the Brits to have an innate ability to make enjoyable comedies.

Or maybe I just enjoy that sense of humor more and that might cloud my judgment. It's entirely possible that it's the latter. But that's neither here nor there. The last two times (this included) I've brought this up has been for a movie that, while not without its moments, is inherently flawed.

I will say this right now, the concept for this movie certainly has the potential to bring about a lot of cool moments that subvert normal rom-com tropes. It's a rom-com that, literally, plays out in reverse.

I don't mean it plays out like Memento, where the end is the beginning and vice versa. I just mean that it's a movie about our two leads, who got married after only seven months together, realizing that they are not in love with each other.

I don't wanna say it's like The Break-Up, but it's the closest comparison point. Moving on, however. As I mentioned, this movie had so much goddamn potential to be great. The question now is, did the film live up to that potential? If you couldn't tell by the rating prior to reading this then I don't know what is actually wrong with you.

Anyway, the answer to that question is an unequivocal no. And you don't know how much it disappoints me. I always applaud originality in whatever film that may have some, but I've felt that, for the most part, rom-coms are usually behind the pack when it comes to subverting their many tropes.

This film had the potential to do that, as if I hadn't made that clear already and, yet, THIS is the movie we got. I don't know where to really begin. I like the idea behind this, it's a deconstruction of the romantic comedy and yet it falls apart almost immediately after it starts.

It looks at this overzealous couple that got married before they really got to know each other. Again, all fine. The problem is the fact that, really, for the most part, the leads are really unlikable.

You can make this type of movie where it looks at the difficulties of marriage without making the leads look like such assholes for picking arguments about small shit. In a film like this, I think it's key for you to, at the very least, relate to the characters.

You're supposed to be with them as they realize that they got married to the wrong person all the while the right person is available to them. That's problem one. Second problem is the fact this movie is never as funny as it probably should be given how the comedic scenes play.

The comedy in this movie, I'm certain, read better on paper than they played out on screen. Maybe they were never that funny to begin with, who knows? But I just found the movie to be completely inconsistent when it came to laughs.

That's not to say that it is without its moments. This will certainly have spoilers, but the climactic scene of Josh going to his first anniversary dinner with Nat to ask her for a divorce her plays out like a marriage proposal would play out in these films.

It's actually one of the very few legitimately funny scenes in the entire movie. The casting isn't the problem here. I think Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne are perfectly mismatched. They've got an antagonistic chemistry with each other and that's precisely what the film required.

Perhaps they didn't hate each other as much as Minnie Driver and Jason Flemyng's characters did (they're another one of the highlights), but their dislike for one another felt genuine. The supporting cast is strong, Simon Baker is charming and Anna Faris is always great.

So, again, the problems I have with this film are completely unrelated to the casting. It's all about the writing. Unlikable characters, general lack of truly memorable comedic scenes and a lot of dead air in between those "comedic" scenes.

All of that holds this movie back tremendously. It's not what I would call a truly terrible movie, it's certainly watchable thanks to the actors and a few memorable scenes. It's disappointing more than anything else.

I was able to get through this without much problem and, I'm guessing, so would most of you. Still, I can't avoid thinking what could have been if this film was actually more consistent and considerably better written.

This is ok, at best and maybe I'm being generous when I say that.