Long Shot: Film Review

Synopsis

Long Shot follows the story of Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen), a recently unemployed journalist, and Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron), the US Secretary of State seeking a presidential run. After reuniting at a party, Fred is hired by Charlotte as her speech writer. Just as their professional relationship is starting, they start to have feelings for each other and their love blossoms.

Review

To start, Rogen and Theron are great together. It's nice to see Charlize Theron show off her comedic chops and Seth Rogen not take every drug known to man (there's a little bit of that, but not as much as Pineapple Express or any other Seth Rogen film). They have great chemistry and they play off of each other well. The script is smart and clever. It makes light of the issues surrounding the political environment in which we live, but it never makes fun or overdoes it (at least in terms of political humor). The film is topical and timely, but in a good and not in a hit-you-over-the-head way. The script also allows for great character work in order to care about the characters, although it is a bit lengthy at 125 minutes. The film is very funny and has a lot of heart. Most of the jokes hit, although some do miss as with most comedies. It full of laughs and outrageous sight gags. Sometimes, the film goes too far and becomes over the top (the hacked webcam video, namely - I didn't know you could even show that in a movie). The outrageousness kind of bogs down the story by making the viewer not care about it as much but the film ultimately overcomes it. The film is ultimately predictable but so are all “rom” coms ("rom" in quotes because it is a comedy first with romantic elements). It's almost an anti-Adam Sandler movie because the film has a narrative that is most commonly seen in any movie with Adam Sandler