Results

Action stars Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce get a chance to stretch as "musclebound rageaholics" (fitness coaches Kat and Trevor) in this rambling but clever comedy. The film's real hero, however, is Danny (Kevin Corrigan), a rich, schlumpfy client who likes to spread his money around in a helpful way—reminded me a little of the Weenie King in "The Palm Beach Story."

I can see why "Results" made it onto NY Times critic A.O. Scott's ten-best list*; I can also see why so many online commenters found it annoying and boring… For one thing, writer/director Andrew Bujalski lets his mumblecore roots show by intercutting long, talky scenes with odd bits of indie filler (Kat does isometrics, Trevor plays with his dog) that don't do much to advance the plot.

After a very good start—while it still seems like Danny's going to be the main character—the pacing starts to lag with a couple of subtle plot maneuvers that are well thought out but not all that involving. Luckily Kat pulls it all together in a great screwball-comedy set piece, an everything-on-the-table business dinner with Russian "kettlebell guru" Anthony Michael Hall. Truth be told, Pearce and Smulders don't have a whole lot of chemistry, so they do just fine as conflicted exes; it's not all that satisfying when they finally get together. Fans of "Punch-Drunk Love" may enjoy this one too; others not attuned to the indie sensibility should exercise caution.

* More recently, a couple of Times critics put Corrigan and Pearce (both for best supporting) and Bujalski's screenplay on their lists of perfect-world Oscar noms.

This quirky and unpredictable comedy, I would imagine, will not appeal to everyone but it had enough droll humor and charm for me to end up liking it. The 3 leads here Guy Pearce, Kobie Smulders, and Kevin Corrigan, I thought were all excellent in their particular roles.

Smulders captures the screen portraying Kat, an intense, sexy, and volatile personal trainer working for Power 4 Life gym, located in Austin, Texas. The fine actor Pearce plays Trevor the owner of the gym, who's extremely serious about fitness and expanding his business. He's once had an affair with Kat, and they clearly have chemistry between them, but they can't seem to really connect on the same wave length.

Along comes Danny (Corrigan) as a walk-in to the gym. He's a strange guy who's looking to improve on his out of shape and nebishy persona. He's just been through a divorce, but unexpectedly has inherited a windfall from his estranged mother who has died. When Kat is assigned to him as his personal trainer, Danny develops a fixation about her, which will lead down paths I didn't expect.

All in all, there are a number of aspects of this movie that surprised me, but it does strain credibility at times, for sure. It's not a laugh-out-loud type comedy but more droll and cerebral, and this may not appeal to some viewers. The film, written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, ended up winning me over with its good performances, quirky humor, and an upbeat finish.

Netflix's streaming service can be a vast wasteland, but it can also be good for finding off the beaten path films that never would have played at any theater near me and that I might not wanted to have spent $10 on if they did. I've discovered a few real gems this way, as well as waded through some muck. "Results" is not a gem, but it has quite a bit to recommend it.

I get tired of overly-scripted, overly-serious, over-produced studio films about BIG and IMPORTANT themes, so it's nice to come across films with laid back, indie vibes, about "regular" people dealing with the daily act of living, and that's what "Results" is. Kevin Corrigan is Danny, a depressed schlub who hires Kat, a personal trainer (Cobie Smulders) who works at a gym run by Trevor (Guy Pearce), with whom she previously had a fling. Things get uncomfortable when Danny and Kat's professional relationship crosses the boundary into the too personal, forcing Kat and Trevor to face some emotions that both have been trying to ignore.

This might all sound overly scripted, but it doesn't feel that way as it plays out. It feels loose and even rambling at times, and indeed one of my biggest complaints about the film is that it can't seem to decide who its main character is. But what I did like about the screenplay was its ability to upend our suppositions about these characters and the kind of people they represent. At first, our sympathies lie with Kat and Trevor at the sake of Danny. They're attractive, fit, ambitious, everything we're told people who are in charge of their lives should be. Danny is weird, kind of creepy, ugly, dumpy. But as the film evolves, Kat and Trevor find that they have as much if not more to learn from Danny than he has from them, and that a life driven by striving for striving's sake isn't the path to inner peace and contentment, no matter how many power smoothies you drink or articles of Under Armour clothing you wear.

Guy Pearce is one of my favorite actors, and he's really good in this film, doing a lot with material that another actor might not have been able to sell as well. Corrigan is the other standout, giving a minor miracle of a comedic performance, slowly winning the audience over until he almost makes us believe that being out of shape and stoned is what we should all aspire to. Smulders is the one who left me cold. She never makes Kat likable and very frequently makes her annoying. The best scenes in the film are those between Pearce and Corrigan, where Mulders isn't present at all.

Giovanni Ribisi appears here and there in a pointless role as a pothead attorney.

Grade: B+

 Results stars Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, and Kevin Corrigan. Pearce and Smulders play personal trainers for an up and coming gym called Fit 4 Life. The film more or less revolves around these two. They are enjoying a decently profitable business when a bored multimillionaire (Corrigan) decides that he should try and lose some weight. So, Fit 4 Life takes him on as a client. Despite their better judgment of course. Needless to say 'Results' plays by it's own set of rules. Rules that many films today are to safe to even attempt.

But this is why this film is so compelling. It feels real because there is so much that separates it from everything else. Easily, the best part of this film is in its cast. The best of the bunch being Pearce. He plays the ambitious owner of Fit 4 Life. A man that genuinely wants to do good. Even though he may not be able to get that point across without stumbling over himself countless times. But every one else does a great job as well.

This may be due to impressive character writing. Few films these days put this amount of effort into molding its characters. The main three all may seem to have the same problems but it's how they handle these problems that's so compelling. Each one deals with their mid life crisis in different ways. Corrigan can't help but buy anything and everything that he thinks he needs. And Smulders jumps between jobs and men equally, in a sad attempt to try and give her life some meaning.

But the back bone of 'Results' resides in its rom com structure. The film approaches this genre of film from a different direction that easily reinvigorates its familiar story line. With its impressively drawn characters at its back 'Results' hits some ludicrously funny marks. It offers a well drawn, sharp script that basks in its own awkward set pieces and dialogue.

The problem with 'Results' is that the film seems to come to a head not quite halfway through the film. After this hilarious climax everything afterwards just feels like an after thought. So, nearly half of this film feels tacked on. While it wasn't noticeably bad it was certainly harder to focus on the film. Saying that this film moves at its own pace is an understatement. At best it's uneven and worst, sluggish.

'Results' is not a bad film. It's funny, fresh, and offers fleshed out characters that are performed perfectly by its cast. But, 'Results' may a bit to unconventional for its own good. It moves at an uncomfortably slow pace that is often to sluggish for its own good.

This is by all means a "little" simple movie. Nothing spectacular, performance or script-wise.

The direction is boring and slow and the lack of music in most of the scenes makes more obvious the poor script and dialogs.

The spotlight of "who is" the main protagonist is confusing. You may think initially that is Kevin Corrigan (a bad choice for this role) but he isn't. Actually all the characters are mild and seem insignificant.

Cobie Smulders with a large experience in rom-com TV, makes her character a little less flat but in the end her talent is wasted. So are the talents of Guy Pearce and Giovanni Ribisi.

Overall: Very simplistic. Not really cute. Not an actual comedy.