Along Came Polly DVD > Reviews > Along came a very average film

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	funny in some places
Disadvantages:	no chemistry, weak story

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

First of all, I must point out that this is a film-only review. I do not own this film on DVD, but have seen it on TV a couple of times now.

~The Story~

The movie begins with Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) getting married to his girlfriend of four years, Lisa (Debra Messing). They head off on honeymoon to the island of St. Barts, and while there, they meet Claude (Hank Azaria), a French scuba diving instructor, who has a penchant for walking around in very few clothes. On the first day, Lisa has a scuba diving lesson with Claude, and Reuben goes to Claude's boat to surprise Lisa with a bottle of Champagne. He is shocked to find them in bed together - still wearing their flippers!

Heartbroken, Reuben goes back to New York alone. His friend Sandy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an actor who has had only one role in his life, yet has a hugely over-inflated opinion of himself, encourages Reuben to accompany him on a night out. It is here that he bumps into Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) an old school friend who is working as a waitress.

Reuben likes Polly and asks her out on a date. It soon becomes apparent that the couple are very different. Reuben works as a risk-assessment analyst, and is very cautious about everything he does. His home is very organised, and he likes to plan ahead and be in control of everything. He also suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which is not something that goes well with Polly's love of spicy, exotic foods. Polly is very much the opposite of Reuben. Her apartment is messy and disorganised, she likes taking risks, and she owns a pet ferret that runs wild in her home.

Can Reuben and Polly make their relationship work? You'll have to watch to find out!

~What I thought~

I generally like Ben Stiller, although he only really seems to play one sort of character, but somehow gets away with it, and I found Reuben not too different from other characters he has played - such as Gregg Focker in Meet the Parents. I also like Jennifer Aniston, being a huge Friends fan. Together though, I thought that they lacked any romantic chemistry - a pretty vital ingredient for a rom-com, I'm sure you would agree. I felt that throughout the film, although I genuinely felt that Stiller's character had feelings for Polly, it didn't seem to be reciprocated - I never felt that she really liked him back, all that much!

The story is OK (can't be more positive than that, I'm afraid), however, I found at times it seemed to go off track somewhat, for example, there is a scene where Reuben and Sandy play Basketball with two other guys, that just seemed to come from nowhere, and didn't fit in to the film or and had no relevance to the story in any way at all. Also, in a way, you are waiting for something dramatic to happen all the way through, and unfortunately, it just doesn't materialise.

For comedy value, I found that it was actually quite funny in parts, but it is not something you will laugh out loud to all the way through. Ben Stiller's acting style of over-exaggerating everything makes it quite watchable, but I am struggling to be any more positive about the film than that.

~Conclusion~

The best I can say about this film is that it is OK. Like I said, I have seen it twice now on TV, so it is certainly watchable. Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry between the characters and the weak storyline, don't make it the best of films, I certainly wouldn't shell out any money for the DVD, but if I had nothing better to do, I wouldn't say no to watching it on TV again. As Simon Cowell would say, 'Distinctly Average.'