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USD $1 ₱ 56.28 0.0000 March 27, 2024
March 26, 2024
Superlotto 6/49
183613281904
₱ 78,471,419.60
2D Lotto 2PM
2819
₱ 4,000.00

The Opposite of Romance

'That Awkward Moment' eventually makes a play for romantic sentiment, but it’s completely undermined by the boorishness of the characters and their complete inability to make good decisions.

That Awkward Moment refers to the point where a girl one is hooking up asks if the relationship is actually going anywhere beyond just sleeping together occasionally. That is the defining problem for one of the characters in this movie. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing a movie ought to be based on, seeing as it is only a problem if you are a terrible person. And that’s kind of what happens here. The film eventually makes a play for romantic sentiment, but it’s completely undermined by the boorishness of the characters and their complete inability to make good decisions.

The film is about three twentysomething friends: Jason, Daniel and Mikey (Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan). One day, Mikey arrives in his home to learn that his wife Vera (Jessica Lucas) has been sleeping with another man and wants a divorce. Avowed bachelors Jason and Daniel urge him to get back in the game, and the three make a pact to stay out of relationships for a while. But that promise turns out to be difficult to keep for all of them. Mikey can't help but try and work things out with his wife. Daniel starts falling for his best friend/wingman Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis). And Jason inadvertently finds himself being drawn into the life of Ellie (Imogen Poots), a girl he meets at a bar.

The film’s intentions are clear enough. It’s a romantic comedy making a play at the male market by being raunchy and profane. It’s an approach that’s been tried several times before, and it hardly ever works. The problem is that the two sides of the film are so inherently at odds. The raunchy side pushes the guys to be as boorish as possible, turning them into machines seemingly incapable of considering the emotions of others. But then we’re supposed to buy that these characters are still capable of the emotional resolve to reach for the film’s big romantic moments.

It doesn't work. It doesn’t feel like these guys deserve any sort of happiness. If the film were smarter, it would have let this play out as a cautionary tale, fully accepting the consequences of guys making dumb decisions. But it doesn’t have the courage to do that. In place of recognizable human experience, it offers up plenty of hijinks. It all feels pretty aimless. It doesn’t help that the female characters are equally as flat. They are simply prizes to be won, or obstacles to be overcome.

The film seems to be banking entirely on the charisma of its three stars. It’s hoping that Zac Efron will be able to make his monster of a character vaguely sympathetic. It’s leaning hard on Miles Teller’s snappy delivery to make Daniel something more than an absolute sleazeball. It’s asking Michael B. Jordan to find something human in his character’s travails. And while all three are certainly talented, their combined powers aren’t quite enough to overcome the problems inherent with the film’s approach.

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That Awkward Moment feels like it was designed by a committee. It feels like it was conceived through market research rather than actual human experiences. It portrays a completely aspirational lifestyle, with these young people who live in weirdly large apartments, spending most of their time drinking small batch rye whisky, playing video games, and hanging out at bars. These activities define their lives to the point that they stop resembling real people. And I suppose this is all meant to be romantic. The film offers up the complete opposite.

My Rating:

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