What's Your Number?

Starring: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley Jr., Joel McHale, Chris Pratt, Zachary Quinto, Mike Vogel, Martin Freeman, Andy Samberg, Anthony Mackie, Aziz Ansari
Directed by: Mark Mylod
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary:
A woman (Anna Faris) decides to reexamine 20 of her exs to find which one is the man she will marry.

Review:

Tim: What's Your Number? is exactly what you would expect- a very lightweight, occasionally humorous, completely cliche-filled romantic comedy. When I talk about romantic comedies that surprise and break free of the genre limitations, it's movies like this that I compare it to. This movie isn't necessarily bad, but it's been done before. It's far too predictable, and feels stale.

The story is similar (at least in spirit) to many other movies. A woman decides she's slept with too many guys, and refuses to sleep with anyone else. That leads her to reexamine her ex-boyfriends, as she becomes convinced that one of them is the guy she will marry. We basically see the main character getting in touch with ex after ex, none of whom are right for her. This makes up the majority of the film. That's a decent plot, but nothing special.

I like seeing Anna Faris is a more normal role. She's usually all too willing to go to any length for a laugh, so it's a nice change to see her more or less normal here. I thought she was decent, but not great. Chris Evans, on the other hand, adds a lot of charisma and charm to the film. He was very funny and enjoyable, and the best part of the film. Evans and Faris team up, but of course, they wouldn't slowly fall in love and end up together at the end, because that would be far too predictable.

The rest of the cast features some familiar faces, but no one really gets a chance to do anything special. Blythe Danner was fine, but a bit one-dimensional. I like Joel McHale a lot, but he didn't have anything to do. Zachary Quinto is also someone I like, but he had even less to do. Andy Samberg and Anthony Mackie don't get a chance to add much at all. The cast was really underutilized, since most only get a few minutes of screen time.

The big problem I had with this film is that there's so many plot holes and absurd things. For example, Evans and Faris have a scene where they play Strip Horse. This is a hilarious idea, unique, and funny. This is one of the best scenes, and features some very cute, entertaining moments. However, it happens to take place at the TD Garden, where Evans just so happens knows how to break into, and light up the court without getting caught by security. Oh, and Faris and Evans are both extremely good basketball players. This is the root of the problem of this film- even when a great moment happens, it's undermined by utter stupidity, asking us to suspend our disbelief far too much. This movie just asks us to believe way too much too often throughout the film. I also hated that Faris has a unique artistic talent that Evans could seize on and suggests she'll be able to support herself without actually doing work. Of course she has that talent! I haven't seen that before in a romantic comedy.

The movie does feature some funny moments throughout. I didn't have a bad time watching it, I just couldn't take anything seriously because it was so far away from reality. Evans and Faris actually worked really well together. I believe they had chemistry on screen, and it was a good deal of fun to see them interact together. That's a very important element for a romantic comedy. Unfortunately, the script puts them into too many silly situations and reuses so many tired elements from other romantic comedies. While I liked some aspects of the film, the movie is far, far too predictable to be anything other than ordinary.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The House Bunny, Take Me Home Tonight, Observe and Report, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World