Mariage à l'anglaise

From the start it's obvious where this story is going to end up and we must be grateful that it only takes 97 minutes to get there. The script, mostly a series of break-ups and makings-up, might have worked for a TV sitcom but it's not enough to sustain a movie. The direction - like the writing - is uninspired.

There's a terrible lack of chemistry between each pair of leads, whichever way you mix them. The men are more persuasive than the women, and Minnie Driver outshines the two female stars. Olivia Colman has a nice role as a counsellor in need of counselling herself. Stephen Merchant gives us his usual tiresome nerd so persuasively that you want to see him pushed under a bus.

The law of diminishing returns seems to be applying to British rom-coms. PIRATE RADIO (The Boat that Rocked) wasn't as funny as LOVE ACTUALLY which wasn't as romantic as NOTTING HILL which wasn't as funny as FOUR WEDDINGS. I GIVE IT A YEAR is conspicuously lacking in believable romance and a few chuckles do not constitute much of a comedy.

I'd give it a miss.

The rom-comedy genre has been known for being very formulaic and often entries are a dime a dozen. It is hard to stand out of the crowd and it is often a genre that plays it safe. But I Give It a Year is a film that attempts to twist the rom-com clichés.

Josh (Rafe Spall) and Nat (Rose Byrne) are a couple who after dating for seven months decide to get married, even though they friends and family think they are marrying too soon. And it turns out they are right with their marriage hits the rocks. Their eyes soon wonder to two American, Chloe (Anna Farris), Josh's ex-girlfriend and one of Nat's business clients, Guy (Simon Baker).

Often the formula of rom-coms is that the guy or girl tries to win over someone there are often a series of mishaps and misunderstanding on the way. In I Give It a Year the main two characters are fighting for their marriage as they are two other suitors waiting in the wings. In style I Give it a Year was shot very much like other rom-coms like Bridget Jones, Love Actually and Notting Hill (Working Title made all those films) but I Give It a Year is more of an anti rom-com, being more willing to be risqué. There are some twists on typical rom-com clichés and there is a fine parody of a famous rom-com speech.

I Give it a Year is the first film as a director for Borat writer Dan Mazar and most the humour was sex jokes or awkward/cringe humour and sometimes both. This was all summed up with Stephen Merchant in a show stealing performance giving us his trademark cringe humour and saying very politically incorrect at the most inappropriate times. Olivia Coleman as a bitter man-hating marriage counsellor who has some of the best lines in the film and great physical actions. But some of the jokes are overlong and the first joke where a priest is uncontrollably coughing led to me thinking what have I got myself in for.

Spall and Byrne are fine actors. Spall was very good at playing a prat and Bryne was the straight character of the piece. But she is made to be more of the bad guy out of the pair as she is more willing to flirt with Guy and seeks him out as the marriage starts to crumble. The other love interests are also a bit too perfect, even trying to show Guy as the perfect (plus he owns a massive factory in Britain, why not make him British). The supporting cast are solid, particularly Minnie Driver and Jason Flyming as a marriage couple who hard each other.

I Give It a Year is a fun film that will delight audiences. The cinema audience I saw it with enjoyed it. There are enough jokes and twists the rom-com genre to keep the film fresh.

With so many modern romantic comedies reaching the point of unintentional self parody, we have (thankfully) seen a niche segment emerge that aims to subvert the conventions that have plagued this once frothy and enjoyable genre. Fare like (500) Days of Summer, Celeste and Jesse Forever and Friends with Kids have seen the sins of the father and have come up with ways to please mainstream audiences but without insulting their intelligence. I Give It a Year joins these rare ranks and delivers a sometimes gut busting, always frank and enjoyably clever look at the trails and tribulations of marriage.

There are certainly times when this British-American hybrid goes too far with its crude dialogue or goofy awkward rants but writer-director Dan Mazer still clearly knows what is funny, and his time writing for Da Ali G Show has served him well in his directorial debut. Certainly the heart and soul of I Give It a Year comes with the well matched talents of its two main leads Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall as a newlywed couple who tied the knot after just seven months together. We often cut back to a session with a brash marriage counsellor who probably does more harm than good and also with Natasha and Josh's interactions with a former flame (Anna Farris) and a business connection (Simon Baker) who may play a larger role as things unwind. Either playing off one another or interacting with the supporting cast these two bring the laughs and a believable depiction of a union in distress.

As can often be the case with a peak into the lives of others, especially into one not on the best of terms, awkwardness follows and so is the case with this film. Like being present as a third wheel while a couple have a spat, some scenes in I Give It a Year ring uncomfortably true. Thankfully what this film avoids is painting either Nat or Josh as the reason for the troubles – never opting to paint the wife as merely the shrill, bitchy ninny or the husband as a slovenly tool. Each have their faults, each have their positive attributes and each have the chance to be at the receiving end of an unnecessarily cruel insult or judgement. So while not likable insofar as we're viewing them in tough times, we are able to rationalize with these people and view them as real humans, not just as the brunt of jokes or mere players in a game of marital politics.

The laughs in Mazer's film come from multiple facets, may it be the interplay between characters, situational humour such as a trip to a lingerie shop, or its (often vulgar) wit. The funniest scene (and of the best of the year) involves a visit from the in-laws and a digital picture screen and needless to say the way that Spall plays the situation is absolutely perfect and had be reduced to a cackling idiot. If one buys into the often sarcastic and overly clever dialogue will come down to the viewer, but for the most part it won me over, in large due to how the cast deliver the lines and react in turn.

I Give It a Year also concludes in a perfect way and one that stays true to the same awkward, sardonic tone the rest of the film adopts. To say it slaps in the face every film that wraps up with someone literally running to the airport last minute to proclaim their eternal love would be an understatement. A closer approximation would be that it puts those offerings in a sleeper hold and squeezes out every ounce of maddening cliché. It's satisfying, funny and refreshingly direct. This act is preceded by what is also one of the best "reunion" speeches I've ever heard. I won't spoil anything as to how it unfurls but it too is cooling in its candidness.

While unfortunately not quite parody and maybe never quite as clever as it intends, I Give It a Year is still rife with mirth and deftly understands elements of marriage, relationships and most importantly the irritating formula of the rom-com. Earning its R-rating and showing unequivocally that Byrne, Spall, Farris and Baker are the things of leading men and women, this often uncomfortable but ultimately earnest feature is fun from beginning to end – something, as this film reminds us, is nothing at all like marriage.

Okay, so imagine you've just finished work, got home and need something to provide a little bit of background noise whilst sat with your laptop on brushing up on what's happened in the world, whilst thinking about what to have for dinner. This film is perfect for that.

This film isn't not funny. It's just not THAT funny. Quirky bits here and there, but once you've heard one sex pun, you've heard 'em all. It never really gets going and half way through the film I could tell I wasn't the only one sat in the cinema thinking this is slowly turning into a bit of a bore.

There are a smattering of funny areas, particularly the Christmas Party scene, but other than that, it's your run-of-the-mill Brit Rom-Com that doesn't really come to life.

Advice? Wait until it turns up on Sky Movies. Then you can judge for free.

I always feel bad about being negative towards the British film industry. We don't have Hollywood's budget so I always try to support the national film industry. And, 'I Give it a Year' certainly boasts an impressive cast of fine British (and even American) actors.

It's about a couple who have only known each other for seven months before they decide to get married. This film charts the first year of their subsequent life together. The characters are all beautiful, rich, thin people who work in trendy London offices, live in stylish Victorian apartments and can afford lavish, high-society weddings. The male characters are either or both selfish or stupid (Rafe Spall attempting to 'out-annoy' Jar Jar Binks at some stages). And the American characters are seemingly parachuted into the story to save the lovelorn Brits.

I found the film a bit of an enigma. I stuck with it to the end and enjoyed some of it. Every scene felt like a sketch that would fit right in during an (adult) sketch show (think 'That Mitchell and Webb Look' or 'Armstrong and Miller'), however, using it in the context of an ongoing narrative, it just didn't work. The parts were funny; it's just they didn't seem to go with each other.

With the calibre of acting talent amassed here, it should have been brilliant, yet, despite being funny, it somehow left me cold. A weird contradiction in film-making.

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