Going the Distance is the story of an aspiring journalist Erin (Drew Barrymore) on internship with The Sentinel newspaper who meets Garrett (Justin Long -
He's Just Not That Into You) over a game of centipede in a bar. After spending the night together, Erin reveals that she is only in New York for another 6 weeks and is not looking for anything serious. The perpetual drifter, Garrett agrees that this is just a casual thing, he isn't looking for anything serious either but would like to continue seeing her. Cue cheesy-montage of the 6-week period and lo & behold, the two are crazy about each other and faced with being imminently seperated. They decide to try the long-distance thing (as the title of the film may suggest) and the rest of the film follows the trials and tribulations that a 'LDR' brings with it.
Going the Distance (GTD) is a more honest film than a lot of it's genre usually are; sometimes I was caught off-guard, having being conditioned to expect the saccharine hollywood rom-com lines in response to a given situation but GTD often surprises with it's realism, diverging from the norm and being counterintuitive keeping the story and humour fresh.
And there's humour aplenty, at quite a few points I laughed out loud, empathising with the protagonists or just finding the joke plain funny - when Garrett meets Erin's sister for the first time is a highlight. With that being said, some scenes are really poorly written, the dialogue just seems a bit wooden and comes across very stilted, but both of the main players are more than capable of drawing you in with their range. When you throw in Garrett's best friends, Dan & Box (Charlie Day -
Reno 911! & Jason Sudeikis -
The Bounty Hunter) really adding to the comedy this turns out to be a solid film.
The soundtrack is respectable as well, with some indie classics in there amongst newer stuff, Boxer Rebellion pop up more than once and there's an Eels track also. So well filmed, well-acted, good score just a bit lacking in the story department as you can see the overall story-arc coming a mile off even if some of the minor scenes are unpredictable.
Extra Content: The DVD just has the usual suite of deleted scenes, but the Blu-Ray has a couple of featurettes; interviewing the cast about the dos and don'ts of a long distance relationship and advice on how to have the perfect date. Nothing overly special but adds to the experience.
All in all, a good film that will make you laugh more than a couple of times, but ultimately feels a bit contrived and predictable. Definitely one of the better rom-coms and more than worth a watch!!