My Date with Drew

Brian Herzlinger's quest for a date with childhood crush Drew Barrymore is, appropriately enough, a great date movie. It's funny, inspiring and very sweet. The fact that this was shot on a miniscule budget is part of its charm, but it doesn't play as cheaply made. In fact, it's more polished and fast-paced than many other modern documentaries. And Herzlinger is a winning presence. He knows how outrageous his mission is, but he attacks it with an admirable can-do zeal. This movie will have special resonance with movie geeks, especially those who grew up around the same time as Herzlinger. But dreamers from all walks of life are certain to enjoy it. You'll understand why it's won audience-favorite awards at film festivals. Highly recommended.

My Date with Drew isn't just a movie about a guy trying to get a date with a celebrity crush, it's a film about taking chances and reaching for seemingly unattainable goals. You can't help but grin as the goofy protagonist goes about his quest. This is a heartwarming and uplifting documentary.

3 June 2006. This every man low-budget movie is an inspiring documentary of one man's attempt to secure a date with Drew Barrymore. Recorded on a bare budget, this quest is personal and intimate, dramatic, emotional, and inspiring. It is rich with authenticity, strategy, and realism that all of us can relate to. The pacing of the editing, the whole voyage is captivating as the up and down trek is attempted down blind alleys, guesses, wishes, ideas that offer the audience a behind the scenes look at networking and the Hollywood connection as the real personality behind the curtain of the movie industry. The real story is the down to earth and entertaining events that unfold and the realness of most of the people on screen even those that appear to be out of reach. This is funny, sometimes tense-filled, thriller that has all the intensity of wish-fullfillment held by us all. Highly recommended. Nine out of Ten Stars.

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.

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.