Being newly separated, the coming week is one best avoided so it must say something about my levels of masochism that I find myself, on a Saturday night, sat on my tod in the back row watching Working Title's latest attempt to be the 'great British romantic comedy' (in my defence it was this or the film about the killer tsunami). Written and directed by Sacha Baron Cohen collaborator Dan Mazar, the film has a mix of the cringe inducing moments you'd expect plus a dash of the Judd Apatow approach to produce a comedy that, while admittedly very funny in places, feels a little forced and, at times, leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
I Give it a Year cleverly starts off where most romcoms end, with a pre-credits montage that shows Josh and Nat (Rafe Spall - channelling Hugh Grant and totally failing and Rose Byrne repeating her Bridesmaids character pretty much) meeting and having a whirlwind romance ending with them married. The problem is however that, once married, Nat and Josh are totally ill-suited and just annoy each other. This goes from the traditional cliches - not putting the bins out, loo seat up, etc, to the more imaginative, such as Nat's habit of singing songs with the wrong lyrics (The Eurythmics misquote "I travelled the world in generic jeans" being my favourite). Soon the pair are looking elsewhere, with Nat attracted to a handsome yank businessman (Simon Baker) while Josh still has feelings for his ex-girfriend Chloe (Anna Faris). Will the pair fight to save their marriage, or will them have the guts to call it a day?
The film has many excellent set pieces that are genuinely funny. One, where the pair upload their honeymoon photos onto one of those digital picture frames which is playing in their parents' house, forgetting they'd taken a few sex shots, is hysterical as Josh tries to distract the parents while the dirty pics flash up, is laugh out loud funny as is a great almost sex scene when Chloe becomes an unwitting member of a threesome. Josh trying to mime Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman in charades to Nat's family (sounds like quim )is a masterclass in through the fingers viewing. Stephen Merchant is great value as Josh's mate, a man who says the most inappropriate things at every occasion. You also get a classic moment when Jane Asher says the F word. The supporting cast are great, from the aforementioned Asher to Nigel Planer as Josh's over amorous father and Faris and Baker are good value as the ex and the worthy suitor (look out for the doves).
Where I Give It A Year spectacularly fails in in its two leads. Spall is an adequate actor but Josh is written as a total tit, crap dancing and bumming about not writing his second novel. Why anyone, let alone the two female leads, would want to sleep with him beggers belief. Nat, meanwhile, hides she's married from the new man at once and is brittle and snooty. It doesn't help that you spend most of the time worrying for poor Rose Byrne's health - she is so skinny, with stick arms. What kind of role model is this to today's young girls? She makes Kiera Knightley look like Dawn French. What is also off is that, as ill-suited as the pair are portrayed to be, they are still basically spending a film cheating on each other which gives the whole thing an unsavoury air - you laugh but you feel a little soiled too. The lingerie that is modelled by the ex, then worn by the wife in a tryst with her businessman and then worn again for the husband is just sleazy. The best turn in the whole film belongs to Minnie Driver who, as Nat's sister, is so incredibly bitchy and nasty to her husband (Jason Flemyng) that it makes your jaw drop. As a kind of anti romcom, I Give It A Year just about works but it's not the great British comedy or one destined to make loved up Valentine's couples leave the cinema feeling romantic.
GK Rating: *** The Blog of Delights
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