Film Review: Long Shot Hits A Rom-Com Goal
I was incredibly impressed with Long Shot. While the Seth Rogen film is hilarious, continuing Rogen’s signature humor of self-deprecation, drug culture, and awkward, bodily interactions, the movie shines for its romance. It is one of the few films, I can recall, where two people fall for each other because of who they are as souls.
Directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah, Long Shot stands out as a romantic-comedy because you do not question why these two people are falling in love; within 2 hours, you see every reason. Long Shot has no problem exploring who Charlize Theron’s Charlotte Fields and Seth Regen’s Fred Flarsky are as people. Theron makes Charlotte a ripe blend of strength and sadness. She is so determined to better this world, of which she has as the youngest Secretary of State. You really do grow to admire Charlotte as a good human being trying to be a better politician, of which the latter role has sparked her loneliness. Enter Rogen’s Fred to, ironically, bash movies “manic pixie dream girl” tropes.
The “manic pixie dream girl” theory, when applied, follows a brooding, grouchy male lead that, somehow, manages to win the heart of a sassy, free-spirited woman who has no role beyond loving him as he discovers himself. The END! Yet, people are people, and in “switching” the gender roles of typical rom-coms, Long Shot shows the mistakes some classics have made. O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays Lance; Fred’s hilarious, GOP/GOD loving best friend, that tells him he is the “Julia Roberts” of this romance. His rom-com theory is not wrong as Charlotte feels like Fred’s Richard Gere; opening and cleaning Fred’s messy life. Yet, she is not saving him in the same way he is not saving her. These are simply two people feeling so burnt by the same world they are trying to better that, in the end, they decide to love each other through their woundings.
Fred is a man of strong, moral convictions that both feels lost and has lost because of them. Rogen does well in setting up that Fred may be virtuous but he also needs tor grow, of which, once again, Theron’s Chalrotte comes off as the elegant, open heart teaching him to do so as they confront a common enemy: the top 1%. Long Shot does not shy away in portraying the seedy, journalistic world of places like Fox News or its owners Rupert Murdoch, but in this universe they are called Wembley News and Parker Wembley (played creepily by Andy Serkis). This conglomerate buys and blackmails the world, literally, and it is because of them Fred feels both refreshing and archaic; a classic reporter trying to better humanity and buy some treats from his local bodega. His disappointment matches well with Charlotte as they remind each other that others can try to bring them down, but it is their job to continuously rise themselves.
The magic of Long Shot is that it is a comedy for true, mature love. Charlotte and Fred are two, “successful” adults that forgot what it is to share your mind, heart, and triumphs with someone you feel equals you. Thus, as you watch, you become invest in their coupledom with a greater genuineness. This movies is superbly romantic, while also being crazy funny in prats, puns, and punchlines. Long Shot Comes Out In Theaters May 3.
