Documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein (“On the Ropes”) makes her feature film directorial debut with “Going the Distance”; a slightly different kind of comedy about love, the efforts to make it work and everything in between.
Geoff LaTulippe crafts a script that is not only mature, revealing and current – but thankfully rate R too – that will attract the adult movie-going audience. The film follows Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garret (Justin Long) that are completely opposite from one another – in persona and career status – that meet by chance and fall for each other after a beer, a centipede arcade game and a six-week summer romance. At the end, they both realize that there might be more to their short-lived romance and decide to follow their heart battling opposite coasts, nay-saying friends and family.
“Going the Distance” is a brilliant story and witty comedy where all the glossy aspects of falling in love get set aside for a reality check. Burstein definitely follows her documentary style with a candid and unobtrusive approach to the characters and the narrative exposition. Barrymore is enchanting as the wry wit, unfiltered woman in the leading role proving that she can adapt to roles outside geeks that have never been kissed.
The film is a breath of fresh air in the romantic comedy genre adding wit, uproarious and grown-up situations - a formula that is often lost in other films. Kudos to Burstein and company for talking about love without all that Hollywood gloss.
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