My Date with Drew

I was completely taken in by the charm and optimism of My Date With Drew, although the movie's critics hold generally far more cynical views about it. Many find this work creepy and unnerving because its star-director, Brian Herzlinger, manages to pull off some rather interesting stunts ...

But this movie is innocuous, really, and nothing either dangerous or sordid happens, here. At the heart of Herzlinger's work is a man who engages himself on a quest for emotional and material success, and I found it inspiring, quite frankly, to witness his journey.

One might admire or dislike Herzlinger, finding him either funny or creepy, but there's no denying that the man has chutzpah! Give credit where credit is due, for he's accomplished what few independents have in that he's gotten his movie made and distributed (and gotten us writing about it, as a result of that). Not too shabby, by any means.

Take a date movie and mix it with a movie about making a movie. Dose it with a notion of homemade opportunism.

Does it matter if it engages? If the guy matters? Probably not.

The standard date movie has three acts: The fantasy is established, the fantasy is dashed, the romance is achieved. Often a guy with problems and a perfect girl, sometimes the other way around.

That's what we have here, almost as if it were scripted. It is almost too perfect. Surely, Drew's production company added and sorted things after they got involved.

If you like metamovies, you'll get a bang out of this. If you get embarrassed by ultradorky dumb people, so dumb they should hide, if bad production values bother you, stay away.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This movie has all the makings of a really good movie. It had really good film quality, passionate individuals, a fast moving plot -- and a really good (obvious) goal. But even given all that, I just couldn't connect with the lead character/filmmaker. He's clearly a passionate guy, but something about him seemed like there was a manic aggressive undercurrent to his personality. The result was a turn-off to the film - and I watched with some excruciating pain as he tried to get to Drew Barrymore.

This movie is not without its merits - it is well done and there are some smart lines and ideas - like the 6 degrees of separation between any two people in the world. That stuff is cool, but unfortunately that didn't make up for the dislike of the main character. Skip this movie unless you're a devout Drew Barrymore fan.

Even casting aside memories of the infamous summer of 2005, (during which the Internet Movie Database's Film General message board was overrun for months by the director's friends relentlessly hawking this documentary - and getting extremely unpleasant when challenged about their behaviour, trolling the board - in a monumentally misguided attempt at viral marketing that ensured everyone who encountered them waited for it to arrive on television rather than pay to see it) this film is impossible to like.

Much of that stems from the unlikable Brian Herzlinger, a man with no personality to speak of. He's a poor enough actor to betray the fact that at times he's clearly reading scripted material or improvising imaginary see-I-got-you-back phone conversations with an ex girlfriend who cheated on him. And that's not even his most pathetic moment.

Every attempt is made to enliven the concept but because it simply doesn't lend itself to a feature length film these attempts are doomed to failure, even if they weren't so hopelessly amateurish and inappropriate. They frequently employ six degrees of separation graphics as if they expect the audience to care that some guy's friend is a friend of some other guy's agent who knows someone who once worked with Barrymore. This kind of information is often presented in dramatic freeze frames as if to underline how important it is.

Presumably resulting from a dearth of imagination and creativity we're left with seemingly never-ending footage of Herzlinger approaching teenage girls outside malls and telling them what the film's about. "Oh, cool" they respond unenthusiastically - and this footage made the final cut! Next we see him unsuccessfully stopping people in the street and asking them to take part in "A survey about Drew Barrymore." It continues like this until the final scene, which I won't spoil. Things get mildly interesting (and decidedly awkward) for a few minutes and then - thankfully - it's over.

I received a screener from the video store that I work at and I decided to give it a look. I didn't know what to expect because the premise is really odd. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is good. Some scenes are inappropriate, and make the movie less about the date with Drew and more about Brian Herzlinger's personal life, but this is forgivable because the rest of the film, the Drew-centered parts that is, are really fun. Without ruining anything, some of the things he does to try to meet Drew Barrymore are pretty funny, and pretty creative. Another beef would be that it is filmed in MiniDV, but you could argue it's part of the appeal of the movie. The strongest aspect of the film, in my opinion, is the editing. Although the production value is extremely low ($1100 from a game show) the editing is amazing.

After I saw it, I came to IMDb to find out more about the filmmakers (the editor, particularly, whom I thought was really good). What I found was amazing... People were fighting over the message boards. Now that's just sad. I never usually post, I just visit for info, but I felt that this movie needed a fair review, from someone who's actually seen it. Some bits are too long, some bits aren't as funny, but overall it is an enjoyable experience.