I Give It a Year

Starring: Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Jason Flemyng
Directed by: Dan Mazer
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A newlywed couple (Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall) try to keep their marriage happy and healthy, despite the pessimism of their family and friends.

Review:

Tim: I Give It a Year is a depressing, mostly unfunny little romantic comedy. I did not care for this movie, and it left me feeling unsatisfying and unpleasant, like I had just wasted 97 minutes of my life. Sure, some people might like the "realistic" or "no holds barred" look at love and marriage, but for me, it felt unnecessarily pessimistic and sad. I just didn't like this movie much at all.

If you're going to point to anything positive, it would have to be the unflinching look at marriage this movie presents. Whereas most movies are happy to make marriage the ultimate goal or seem perfect and ideal, this movie presents marriage as it is for many people around the world- miserable and soul-crushing (I do not group myself in with those unfortunate souls, I'm very happy). I suppose there is some benefit to being realistic instead of typically Hollywoodish, but this movie just made me feel bad inside. It made me feel like people are lying, no good trash, and I don't like to feel that way.

The cast is okay, but I would have liked them better in a different film. I get the sense that I could really like Rose Byrne, but she keeps making these cheap, forgettable little films. I'm not sure what attracted her to this movie, but she should have passed. She's fine, but she is better than a movie like this. Rafe Spall feels like he was made for these kinds of movies. He was passably likeable, but I didn't love him. They are both playing unlikable characters, so that dampens the mood. Stephen Merchant was out of control with his portrayal of the friend who always says the wrong or inappropriate thing. This is a giant cliché of the romantic comedy genre, and Merchant embraced it with everything he had. He greatly annoyed me, and the moments when he wasn't on screen were significantly better than the ones with him. Minnie Driver and Jason Flemyng were fine, I suppose. I kind of like Anna Faris, but I have no idea why she was in this film. She never felt comfortable in the film, but hey, I suppose this is a slight step up from the Scary Movie franchise. Simon Baker was good, but again, should have picked a different movie. He probably comes out of this looking the best.

It would have helped some if this movie was actually funny. It tackles some dark subject matter, so it needed a touch of levity to brighten the mood. Unfortunately, it fails in this regard (Stephen Merchant wasn't getting it done). This is a huge reason for the film's failure- without real comedy, without anything to make us laugh or smile, we're just left with the horribly depressing parts about how people lie to each other, cheat on each other, and just overall act selfishly and stupidly. A movie like this works when the recipe is perfect. Those involved with this film forgot some ingredients and over added others. As a result, I Give It a Year is an unfunny film that barely manages to entertain. This film is just bad all around.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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