Plot
Craig and his wife Tami have been married 16 years. She has just beaten cancer, and they are in the process of growing her flower business, and also moving home.
When Craig meets his new neighbour, Austin – a local night time weather man, they instantly bond – and a friendship blossoms. But Craig’s social awkwardness might derail everything.
Cast
Tim Robinson from the sketch comedy show I think you should Leave plays Craig, who is very much like his many zany characters he has played on his television show.
Paul Rudd plays Austin, however he is severely underused.
Kate Mara plays Tami.
Breakdown
Written and Directed by Andrew DeYoung in his directorial debut.
The movie starts with it seemingly as if it is a drama (with a pinch of comedy) where Tami and Craig are introduced. She has just beaten cancer, and wants her business to grow. She desperately needs a new car, but they have other priorities such as selling their home first. A mistaken delivery parcel leads Craig to meet new neighbour Austin.
He has a extroverted aura about him. He’s confident, he’s adventurous, he plays in a band. He invites Craig out for an adventure night where they creep through the local sewer tunnels, leading them to city hall roof – where Craig gives Austin some worldly advice – “just ask” as Austin is desperate for the morning weather man spot.
All is going great, and the first 30 minutes of this film I genuinely thought this was going to be a 4-4.5/5 film.
Then Craig’s entire personality changes. He goes from being a rather introverted individual, to an almost lunatic. He has a faux pas at a group gathering of Austin’s friends where he hits Austin too hard while boxing, and then acts as no human adult male would act by pretending to eat soap… The conflict between them starts at the half hour mark, and is never truly resolved until the very last few seconds of the movie – where for some reason Austin is “okay” with all of Craig’s antics (and there are plenty)… all because he secretly helped him fix his wig so his other friends didn’t see??? Considering he becomes one of the must frustrating characters, this doesn’t seem deserved.
From there on it is almost as if this character changes… and he becomes a seven year old. He takes his son out into nature (as Austin had taken him), eats wild mushrooms without knowing which ones are safe, he invites his work colleagues over for a boys night, and yells at them when they are talking about the latest Marvel movie (is this a Paul Rudd joke?) he acts aloof when he drops his phone in mud, he screams at a client (the mayor no less) when a presentation doesn’t go his way, he takes his wife on the same ‘tunnel crawl’ Austin took him (which causes her to go missing for days), and then screams and throws a fit at her return party.
There is also a significant portion of the film that 1) Paul Rudd is not present on screen – and only pops up here and there. In fact the last ¾ of the film he a small handful of scenes.
For a movie called Friendship, there is very little of that between these characters, and they are hardly on screen together.
2) The majority of the film is more focused on the marriage breakdown of Craig and Tami, as she is tired of his “ego-entredness” (I don’t blame her), and she has reconnected with an old boyfriend Devin.
Speaking of which…
This plot point goes nowhere, in fact there are several plot points that aren’t addressed again, or brought up.. just because. Tami’s cancer for one is just thrown in as a depressing back story. There is also the odd inclusion of their son Steven who kisses mum on the lips, which Craig finds strange, but yet again, this is not brought up again.
At no point as well, does it feel like Craig is a father figure or Craig and Tami feel like a real couple. All the dialogues between them are unrealistic, and inorganic.
At least the frequent mention of Tami needing a new car is delivered in the last act where Craig does in fact buy her a new car… but then crashes it trying to crash it into Austin’s new car just moments later… and we’re supposed to feel empathy for him?
The frequent coarse language also takes you away from the content of the film as well. Some films use the f bomb sparingly or smartly – this film just used it … because. I’m no prude, and use that language or worse, but again it just felt inorganic – and used it incorrectly.
There are a handful of scenes that are genuinely funny (like Austin slipping in the pee in jail, and Craig’s drug trip where he goes to… Subway)… but the small amount I did laugh, didn’t outweigh the rest of the film
Overall
Starting off strong, the last ¾ of the film falls flat – abandoning even the premise of the notion of friendship and forgetting to even have one of the friends on screen for most of the runtime (was this due to Rudd’s availability?).
The odd relationship between Craig and Tami and then even Tami and Craig doesn’t seem organic at all, and plot points are abandoned halfway through the film.
I didn’t care for this one bit.
Not a recommend.
1.5/5
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