These days romantic comedies have to be “not your normal romantic comedy” to be interesting at all. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Judd Apatow’s efforts, etc. may follow the same inherent structure of a Katherine Heigl or Kate Hudson film, but it’s the difference between a gourmet burger and McDonalds. And with those Heigl and Hudson efforts, the end result is usually the same, an hour and forty five minutes or so of high concept ridiculousness. Anna Faris has been smart about her work, but What’s Your Number? is a by-the-numbers rom-com. It’s also not very good, but it’s hard to get worked up over such blandness. Chris Evans and a host of supporting comics co-star in this tepid affair. Our review of What’s Your Number? on Blu-ray follows after the jump.
Farris Stars as Ally Darling, who starts the film breaking up with her boyfriend (Zachary Quinto) and getting fired by her skeevy boss (Joel McHale). As she takes the train home, she reads an article about how women who have slept with over 20 men find it harder to get married. Her sister (Ari Graynor) is about to tie the knot, and when out with their friends Ally reveals that she’s slept with more men than anyone else in her circle. She’s at 19, and that night she makes a bad decision that takes it to 20.
Fearing that she’s doomed to never get married, she decides to track down as many of her ex-lovers as she can find. This comes from the help of her lothario neighbor Colin Shea (Evans), who is the son of a cop. These exes include such talents as Chris Pratt, Martin Freeman, Andy Samberg, Anthony Mackie, and Thomas Lennon. Eventually she meets one that seems awesome, but by then Colin has revealed himself to be a deeply sensitive individual. What could happen?
Watching this at home, it’s fairly harmless. The message is terrible (the mores of sex have changed too much for numbers to count or matter), but Farris is charming - and constantly eating in the film – while Evans gives the sort of movie star turn that suggests he’s ready to be an A-lister.
Ironically, the film has a very similar structure to Bridesmaids, and it’s as if this exists to show why Bridesmaids is a good movie. It’s too route; nothing happens that can’t be predicted from the moment the film starts. That said there are enough talented performers in it (who are beneath the roles they play) to make it sufferable. Andy Samberg doesn’t do anything particularly funny, but he shows up it’s a nice moment of “oh hey, that guy.” Same with Martin Freeman, even though he does nothing interesting in the film. There’s nothing particularly funny about what they do, but it perks you up.
Evans is the star of the movie, and he seems to know how to do this with the right amount of self-awareness and commitment. The role and the film are stupid, but he’s got it, though it’s not worth watching to film to see it. Eh. Faris is at least new to the rom-com, so this isn’t as dreadful as watching the latest Katherine Heigl vehicle, but if she keeps going in this direction, whatever spark she’s brought to other work with eventually fade.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Blu-ray presents the film in widescreen (1.78:1) and in DTS-HD 5.1 surround for both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film. The difference is about 12 minutes of material. It also comes with a DVD and digital copy. The transfer is solid, no complaints here, but as a romantic comedy it looks functional. There are eight deleted or alternate scenes (17 min.) and a gag reel (7 min.) which asks the cast and crew their number. Also included is the film’s theatrical trailer, and bonus trailers.