Loin des yeux

Bien servis par une réalisation vivante, Drew Barrymore et Justin Long forment un tandem attachant.

Autant ces deux acteurs vont bien ensemble, autant il n'y a absolument rien pour les entourer. Contrairement au sympathique The Switch, les personnages périphériques manquent d'attrait, demeurant de simples caricatures ambulantes. Le scénario, qui ne s'aventure guère loin des lieux communs, ne possède pas beaucoup de mordant, alors que les situations s'enlisent dans la répétition et la vulgarité.

Alors, la distance, elle a ou pas, de l'importance? Dur à dire. Ce qui est sûr, c'est qu'elle est prétexte à un chouette film sans prétention.

Even when the third act falters a bit as it tries to balance the real-life difficulties of a long-distance relationship and the rom-com's instinct toward a happy ending, it has earned your trust with the honesty that came before it; both playing with the tropes of the romantic comedy and rejecting them outright, Going the Distance occupies a happy medium where we don't necessarily really live, but like to think we could. In short, it's better than you're expecting - do yourself a favor and give it a shot.

With good chemistry between likable leads and some timely recession-era professional woes, Going the Distance should be more of a contender. But it stops short of the finish line, burying its romantic-comedy assets under calculated efforts to be socially relevant and vulgar attempts at humor.

The calculated sexual raunch (mostly verbal) in Going the Distance impedes on its hard-edged, soft-center charm, and it may be enough to throw various audience segments straight out of the thing. But screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe's story of a recession-era long-distance relationship and its attendant hurdles takes its characters seriously. Moreover, it takes place in something like the real world and makes the most of its leading actors, one of whom I never really liked much until this movie.

Happy solutions to intractable problems are what romantic comedies are supposed to supply, of course, and while Going the Distance hardly breaks the generic mold, it has enough honesty and charm to set it apart from most other recent examples. For better or worse, standard elements are all in place.

Les personnages secondaires, tels les amis de Long, Charlie Day et Jason Sudeikis, et la soeur de Barrymore, Christina Applegate, aussi hilarants qu'attachants, font oublier les quelques temps morts de cette comédie romantique enjouée.