Summary:
Journalist Fred Flarsky reunites with his childhood crush Charlotte Field, whom is preparing to run for president.
My Thoughts:
As much as I like Seth Rogen (“The Disaster Artist”) and Charlize Theron (“Tully”) I can’t say I ever really get excited for romantic comedies, so this wasn’t a film I eagerly anticipated, but I did have every intention of seeing it all the same. I had not at all expected to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. This is one of the smarter romantic comedies to come out recently, but more importantly than that, this film had themes that were not only incredibly relevant but also important. I found myself making comparisons to James L. Brooks’ “Broadcast News” in terms of the clever way it played with important social issues. While “Long Shot” does start to feel a touch long and sometimes the situations are a bit farfetched, overall it feels like the romantic comedy America deserves right now in 2019.
“It’s Pretty Woman, but she’s Richard Gere and you’re Julia Roberts.”
Fred Flarsky (Rogen) is a reporter who quits his job for moral reasons after the paper he works for is sold to a major news conglomerate owned by Parker Wembley (Andy Serkis, “King Kong (2005)”). Charlotte Field (Theron) is Secretary of State to the wildly underqualified President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk, “The Post”). Chambers confides in Field that he won’t be seeking reelection, and Field decides she will run. As she prepares for her campaign, she runs into Flarsky and discovers that the two used to know each other; Field used to babysit Flarsky. As Field is looking for a new speech writer, she decides to hire Flarsky and the two are forced to spend a lot of time together. Gee, I wonder what happens next…
In the top paragraph I compared this film to “Broadcast News” and I’d like to expound upon that a moment. “Broadcast News” came at time in TV history when the major News networks like CBS and NBC were starting to face competition from smaller, independent news stations, and one of the major things that that film attacked was the growing disinterest in actual news. There’s a scene in that film where Holly Hunter talks about how not one news network covered an important nuclear deal, instead all of those networks showed an elaborate domino set up; people in her audience cheered when the dominoes are shown on a screen, completely missing her point. I think that’s one of the more brilliant scenes in that film (and there are plenty of great moments in that movie). This film comes at a time in our history when the media and politicians are distrusted, and the reason for that distrust, often times, is that politicians and media are often perceived as two-faced morons, like the aging orange that sits in the oval office now (Trump two years ago: “Mexico is going to pay for the wall!” Trump just this last week: “Oh, I guess I’m using billions of dollars that were originally allocated for the Pentagon to build my vanity project.”). This film attacks politicians that don’t stick to their guns, but more specifically it focuses on protecting the environment, which this current administration has frustratingly claimed is a nonissue.
The reason this film worked for me so well is because it feels like a evolution in comedy for Seth Rogen, whose career I’ve been following since the early 2000s. Rogen is smart; he and his partner Evan Goldberg have built a career around their writing and ideas, and I honestly find most of their films to be very funny (they didn’t write this film, but they produced it). But if you look at Rogen’s earlier work, like “Superbad” (a film I love) vs this film, you see a growth in character and maturity. He’s still making plenty of lowbrow/stoner humor, but he’s infusing it into situations that ask the viewer to think a little bit more. This film challenges the viewers to think while their also having a laugh; environmentalism is a huge theme in this film, and so is the idiocy of the president. The messages he’s trying to send might not be super subtle, but, I mean up until recently Rogen’s targeted demographic has typically been stoners, high schoolers, and college kids… maybe it’s smart to be a little less subtle with a target audience like that.
But let’s look past the themes and messages that are addressed; most people, when they go into a romantic comedy, don’t care about the themes, they only want to know if it’s going to entertain them. I thought this film had a few really funny scenes, both Rogen and Theron are given enough to entertain us throughout, and their onscreen chemistry was actually pretty good. I actually thought Theron had some of the funnier moments overall in the film, which is great because I haven’t seen her do many comedic roles since Arrested Development (“Young Adult” and “Tully” have funny moments, but they’re far more dramatic than comedic in my opinion). Alexander Skarsgard (“Hold the Dark”) had some relatively funny standout moments too. When compared to some of the other comedies to come out recently, like “Game Night” or “Booksmart”, I wouldn’t say it’s as funny as those, but it certainly provides enough laughs to warrant a watch.
(SOME SPOILERS ABOUT ENDING)
I actually thought one of the best parts of this film was the flashforward at the end where we learn that Field ended up winning the presidential race and she and Flarsky got married. Flarsky reveals he took on Field’s name, and he talks about his responsibilities as the first First Man. This ending furthers feminist themes (without feeling tawdry) by poking fun at the sect of people who think that a woman shouldn’t sit in the White House. It’s as if to say, what do you really think is going to go wrong? Do you honestly think that just because Hilary is a woman she would’ve done worse than the racist, brainless, heartless troglodyte we’ve got in office right now?
Verdict:
I do think that some overly sensitive conservative-leaning people will be very irritated by the themes in this film, and I can’t imagine they will care for it too much. This film pushes a liberal agenda and themes of feminism and environmentalism, and as that is an agenda I typically agree with, I tended to think I would enjoy this film a bit more than say, one of the people who attended Trump’s rally and chanted “Send Her Back”. In a world that is increasingly divided, I’m happy to see that some of the most mainstream comedians aren’t afraid to push their own views, even if, in the long run, it loses them some fans.
Review Written By: