Romancefest 2016: Going the Distance

Sorry guys, this is Drew Barrymore's last appearance in R-fest 2016. Maybe she'll come back next year. Don't worry, though -- we still have one more Hugh Grant flick left.

Join me, won't you, for Nanette Burstein's 2010 GOING THE DISTANCE, starring the afore mentioned Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. The two meet arguing over a game of Centipede at their San Francisco watering hole, instantly fall in love, and are instantly torn apart by the fact that Barrymore's moving to New York City. After posturing that they're going to let things end, they have a realization at the airport that they should try to make it work. So, they take it long distance.

This movie wouldn't work if you weren't rooting for the central couple. If they didn't have chemistry, you'd just be like, "Who cares, move on." Fortunately Barrymore and Long have chemistry to spare, maybe because they were on again/off again in real life. Or, maybe just because they're fucking pros, okay?

One cool thing about the movie is that it is unabashedly R-rated, so it can be frank about sex and language. That makes it a little more fun than a lot of the other stuff I've been watching all month. It's not like I was sitting there being like, "I wish these people would say fuck more often" but then when this movie started, and Barrymore started cursing a blue streak, I was like, "Oh that's what I've been missing."

The supporting cast is hilarious, with Christina Applegate as Barrymore's uptight sister, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as Long's drinking buddies and Jim Gaffigan as Barrymore's put-upon brother in law.

Plus, you have to give this movie props for the interesting story it tells -- we start off with the stuff that usually takes the entire rom-com to happen. In other words, the two leads getting together. That stuff is done within the first 20 or 30 minutes. The whole rest of the movie is about what would happen AFTER the end credits of most movies in this genre. The bulk of this movie is about how you keep a relationship working, how you prevent it from slipping away, how you have to put work into it and how that sucks sometimes but is awesome other times. In that way, the whole "long distance" part of it is kind of a red-herring -- yes, this movie is about the struggles of a long distance relationship, but in a way, it's an allegory for the struggles of ANY relationship. Being in love is only the beginning.

Okay. So long, Drew Barrymore. You win MVP this year.