They Came Together Review
One of the genres I prefer the least is the romantic
comedy. I know I champion every movie, and I a fearless movie-watcher, but the
romantic comedy never works, well at least nine-times-out-of-ten it doesn’t. I
never really fall for the genre because it always seems to handcuff itself to
its own clichés, it is a genre that repeatedly plays itself safe. Movies like “Annie
Hall,” “Along Came Polly” and even “Celeste and Jesse Forever” maybe romantic
comedies, and they even play by the same rules of the genre, but I love those
movies because they thought outside the box. They were movies that used the
genre norms and shattered them at the same time. This is why I love those movies;
this is why those films are classics of the genre.
“They Came Together” is a romantic comedy, and it is
also a self-parody of the romantic comedy. It puts a twist on the genre, but at
the same time, it comes off looking silly. The film opens on a double date
between Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) and Kyle (Bill Hader) and
Karen (Ellie Kemper). Each couple is taking turns telling the story of how they
met, and once Kyle and Karen finish their story, we go right into the Joel and
Molly story. They begin by telling Kyle and Karen that they didn’t like each
other at first and that their story is long. Before I knew it, Joel and Molly
begin laying down cliché after cliché, and I knew I’d be seeing a parody of the
romantic genre.
The movie is a celebration of romantic cheese. We
see Joel get cheated on by his girlfriend Tiffany (Cobie Smulders), we see
Molly talk about hapless romanticism with her best friend. We see Joel and
Molly dress as the exact same thing at a Halloween party. We see them re-meet after
the Halloween party and fall for each other. Molly has a hesitant sister and a
son who likes Joel right away. They break-up, Molly goes after a jerk, and Joel
re-connects with Tiffany. You will know exactly what we are going to see and
how we are going to see it. But for a parody of the romantic comedy, especially
a parody that underlines that it is going to make fun of the romantic comedy, I
don’t know if it works. I don’t know if going out of the way to tell the
audience that you are a romantic comedy parody is automatically screen gold.
The film certainly knows the norms of the genre, but the film doesn’t be
anything more than a checklist of things we see in this movie. It never does
anything fun, creative or unique with the genre. So the entire film just comes
off boring.
The film does manage to milk two outstanding
performances from Rudd and Poehler. They are both cute and adorable and they
try hard to make this one count. They are so bubbly that you definitely by into
some of the absurdities of the film. But since the film never does anything
more than simple parody, these performances are never allowed to flourish. I
think if the script was a little more daring, the performances by Rudd and
Poehler would have been much stronger. Cobie Smulders is just a blank in this
film and doesn’t really add anything interesting in the film. The film is
filled with familiar faces like Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Max Greenfield,
Michael Ian Black, Michael Shannon, Melaine Lynskey, Lynn Cohen, Jack McBrayer,
Adam Scott, Kenan Thompson, Ken Marino and even John Stamos. This is a great
cast for a romantic comedy parody, but it “They Came Together” is so
cookie-cutter than the film never flourishes.
Maybe I am being a little harsh, because there is
some funny stuff in the film. There is a play on some of the “Annie Hall”
tropes that I found funny. There is a running joke where Joel is always
over-explaining his side of the story, which really made me laugh. There is a waiter
who literally had a pole up his butt. There is some really funny stuff in the
movie, and had the film been more creative, this material would not have felt
wasted. Why wasn’t the good material more analyzed instead of mocking simple
norms? It is really disappointing when there is good material in a comedy that
gets wasted on a one-note script, no matter what the film is trying to do and
say.
There is a minor set-up for a sequel, but I pray to
God it never sees fruition. This would have been a fun idea for a movie, but it
is never allowed to be anything greater. There is some funny material here and
there are two good performances by two spectacular leads, but none of it adds
up to anything substantial. There is nothing worse than seeing so much promise
in something so hollow.
FINAL GRADE: C-
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