Saturday, June 23, 2012
Blu-Ray Review: Wanderlust is funnier at home
A dud in theaters, the Bly-ray release of the Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston comedy amps up the laughter.
Posted by Daniel Feingold on Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 3:00 PM
I find myself in the Wain camp, a fan of more or less all of his work — from the cult classics (The State, Wet Hot American Summer) to the beloved failed Comedy Central sitcom Stella. Outside of Role Models, which featured more mainstream humor to appeal to a broader audience, Wain’s style is hysterically peculiar beyond any other I’ve seen.
He strays from that style a bit in Wanderlust, starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as George and Linda, a married New York couple down on their luck. George just got laid off from his corporate job, and HBO has declined to buy Linda’s depressing penguin documentary.
They go to stay with George’s wealthy a-hole brother Rick (Ken Marino) and his sedated wife (Michaela Watkins) in Georgia, but first stop overnight at a nearby bed and breakfast called Elysium. There they have a trippy night with the commune’s residents (Justin Theroux, Malin Akerman and Alan Alda among them), filled with pot smoking, guitar playing and skinny dipping. When they realize how awful life is at his brother’s house, George and Linda decide to live life freely and join the stereotypically hippie commune lifestyle over at Elysium.
I nearly cringed during the behind the scenes extra when Wain discussed how with Wanderlust, he wanted to examine what people would do when left without options. Ugh. This is Wanderlust with Jennifer Aniston as one of your stars, not some character study written by Diablo Cody. The storyline in itself is corky, but Wain and Marino trade in their niche humor for a standard-issue offbeat comedy.
As such, Wanderlust is a decent watch, but had room to be better. It has its moments of laughter, though there’s nothing too hilarious about it — save for a couple scenes in which Rudd prepares himself for a night of open, no strings attached lovemaking with Akerman’s Eva by talking dirty to both himself in the mirror and her in person. The gag reel and line-o-rama (a compilation of additional ad-libbed dialogue left out of the film) of these scenes, not unlike the rest of the movie, is actually a bit funnier.
While on the topic, there are two more extras that overshadow the film; the first being a mockumentary of Joe Lo Truglio’s plight with regaining self-confidence on set as he plays a nudist and must wear a rather large prosthetic genitalia for the part. The other is a Wanderlust-themed episode of Wainy Days, David Wain’s Internet show that best exemplifies his strange comedy.
For additional Wanderlust reading, check out fellow CL movie critic Anthony Salveggi’s theatrical review of the flick. While you do that, I’ll begin my Wain nostalgia trip by watching Wet Hot American Summer.
Related Stories
-
Silent Blu-ray is almost golden
The Elizabeth Olsen chiller Silent House struggles to rise above its genre roots.
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
Latest in Daily Loaf
-
Bill Foster signs proclamation in support of LGBT month in St. Pete
-
Hillsborough County BOCC still hopes for viable proposal to save Friendship TrailBridge
Lots of people have been wondering what happened to the idea of saving the Friendship Bridge.
-
Get out your LGBT planner
There are plenty of LGBT events to choose from in the Tampa Bay area this weekend: the Florida LGBT-Allies Diversity Summit, Metro Masquerade, The West Coast Players present "The Boys in the Band," Someday Souvenir at The Local 662 and more.
- More »
More by Daniel Feingold
-
Company man
Robert Redford returns to the director’s chair for The Company You Keep.
- More »
