Walking out of Drinking Buddies....I had a thought rushing through my head that I never thought I would. I couldn't help but think that Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston---two of my favorite actors working today---actually made the film a lot less interesting. Kendrick plays Jill...boyfriend of Luke (Jake Johnson) who is desperately in love with his work wife Kate (Olivia Wilde) but doesn't quite know it. Livingston plays Chris....the man that Kate is dating despite the fact that they have absolutely nothing in common with one another.
I'll explain why Kendrick and Livingston made this a lot less interesting. All the stuff between Luke and Kate rings true and is in turns funny and touching. However, Jill and Chris have nothing in common with their significant others and yet the film never acknowledges that. By never directly saying just how little the two couples belong together....writer-director Joe Swanberg manages to make a film that is filled with some of the most incredibly awkward scenes in recent memory. For example....when Jill and Chris share an intimate moment (which is not a spoiler at all)....Swanberg obviously didn't know how to set that up properly.
The last half an hour is actually the best part of the film. I won't say what happens...I'll just say that it's the best part due to the fact that it focuses strictly on Luke and Kate. Also...the ending is perfectly non-eventful. Johnson and Wilde are terrific together. However, I found Johnson to be the only one out of the four who really tried and succeeded. Johnson is an incredibly funny guy and a damn good actor but when he's the best performer in a film that also features Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick and Olivia Wilde...you know you're in trouble.
Swanberg is obviously an incredibly talented man. He was great in You're Next and he has done some very solid mumblecore films such as Uncle Kent, LOL and Hannah Takes The Stairs. Drinking Buddies falls far short of the mumblecore spectrum. This doesn't really affect the film either way except to let me say that I think Swanberg, when writing and directing, should stick to his roots.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language throughout)
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