Os Finkels em Ação

I would have liked this movie if it were not for Mandy Moore. She. Can't. Act. She plays the same, saccharin sweet shy girl in every movie. Every single one. She is not believable as Alvin's wife. She is not believable as a fashion designer. What the hell was she wearing on New Year's Eve. She looked like a 50 year old dowdy cat lady, not a fashion designer who just held a show with a truly bizarre and ridiculous collection of crap. I really had to force myself to finish it. Even the ending was anticlimactic and not the least bit endearing bc of her. And the sound quality in the opening sequence. They used the same song as the opening of While You Were Sleeping, but it sounded like it was in a cave. This story had potential, but someone mucked it up big time.

The most cliché gathered Movie I have ever seen. An Indian, with the oh so funny (?) Indian/English accent, the gay Spanish man with a lisp, the french gay guy that wishes he was a woman, the traditional Asian woman at the Nail salon,who of course, gets into your conversation and is, of course, very "sexually outspoken".

Men who goes to the same Nail salon and sits there with facial masks and "treats themselves" and is talking to the same Asian woman.

I mean come on.

Think of all the bad lines, scenes that are supposed to be funny, that you just roll your Eyes at, all the American Pie Movies, take them and put them in a blender. Out comes this Movie.

Enjoy.

I guess that sums it up good. Hopefully you don't have bad feelings towards the actors involved (especially Mandy Moore), because you wouldn't be able to like or enjoy the movie otherwise. But Martin Freeman and Moore do have a special chemistry and it works for the purpose of the movie. It's not that you will be cheering at the screen (I'm assuming here), but you will like them.

If that is not enough, maybe the decent comedy in place will please you. The theme is an adult one, which although there is not that much going on (explicit wise), the movie is rated R in America. In Germany and other European countries this probably looks different, because it is tame by their standards. A heads up to what you may expect.

This movie has some really funny moments, considerable charm, and a nice sensibility, all too rare in most modern British films.

If you are married (or have ever been in a relationship of more than five minutes), you will be able to identify with the Finkels' problems and be amused by the varied and intriguing solutions they come up with to add some spice to their ailing sex life. There is also a nice contrast with the other main couple and we see how both couples deal with the same problem in rather different ways.

The unusual locations in London were used to great effect and the art direction was excellent.

PS: After watching this film cucumbers will always make you smile.

Alvin (Martin Freeman) and Ellie Finkel (Mandy Moore) seem to be a happily married couple in London. Peter (Jonathan Silverman) and Janet (Melissa George) are their married best friends. With issues in the marriage, Ellie suggests swinging.

Freeman and Moore make for a bland couple. They don't have much chemistry which leaves them without any rooting interest. I don't care about saving their marriage. The characters are flat. The humor is cruel but worst of all, it's broadly bland. With all the inappropriate takes and foul language, none of it is that funny, not even as an accidental shock humor. I'm not sure who writer/director Jonathan Newman is. His resume doesn't stand out to me. It's surprising that he has a cast of good actors. I don't know what they read in the script.