+ Best Comedy of the Year
+ Best Satire of the Year
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| Make the jump with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, this poster for David Wain's Wanderlust seems to beckon us |
A sympathetic New-Yorker couple buy their first apartment and immediately fall into a difficult financial situation, which makes them make a radical shift in their lives, moving to a hippie commune called Elysium.
David Wain (Role Models (2008)) returns with a hilarious comedy, co-written by Wain and Ken Marino (Diggers (2006)), which gives Paul Rudd (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) and Jennifer Aniston (Derailed (2005)) plenty of space to be the terrific and very funny stars they are. - Especially Aniston is wonderful here, coming to the film with a blessed lot of enthusiasm, which also sees her coupled onscreen with her later husband Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive (2001)). (The two had met in 2008 and reconnected on this film; they eventually got hitched in 2015 and still are.)
Wanderlust is driven by snappy comedy, filled with fun lines and with a keen eye for the absurdities of both the hippie commune and the extremely consumerist lifestyle of Rudd's character's brother's family, which it is contrasted against.
Alan Alda (Gone Are the Days! (1963)) has a stellar supporting role, and Joe Lo Truglio (Escape My Life (2012, TV-series)) and co-writer-star Marino are also both strong as the commune's nudist and Rudd's super-douche brother, respectively.
Wanderlust doesn't reinvent the wheel, and not all in it succeeds, but it is an open-minded laugh-fest only a fool would reject.
Related posts:
David Wain: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
They Came Together (2014) - Rudd and Poehler clown around in Wain's romcom spoof
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 23.8 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Wanderlust premiered 16 February (Los Angeles) and runs 98 minutes. Jessica Alba turned down the role that was eventually played by Malin Akerman. Filming took place in Georgia, including Atlanta, and in New York from September 2010 - ?. The film opened #8 to a disappointing 6.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 17.4 mil. $ (73.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.7 mil. $ (7.1 %) and Mexico with 0.9 mil. $ (3.8 %). Video sales accrued an additional 3.8 mil. $. It doesn't change the film's status, if added to its theatrical gross. For some reason audiences didn't at all turn up in the kind of numbers needed in order to make the film a success. Wanderlust is fresh at 60 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Wanderlust?
