Title: Wanderlust

Review by Joe Belcastro – Member of the Florida Film Critics Circle

For those that don’t know, there is an award show that happens the very next day after the Oscars recognize the best in film for the passing year. They’re called the Razzie Awards, and they honor the steaming pile of crap that came out in that said passing year. So just to save everyone some time, when the anti-award show gives out the award for 2011, they might as well just give Wanderlust the trophy for 2012, too.

This is just a bad, bad movie. The only thread of silver lining was that some of the cast was trying. Paul Rudd put forth a decent effort as did Justin Theroux in his character role as the hippie antagonist. But then there’s an under-utilized Alan Alda driving a motorized wheelchair all while feeling the side effects from many years of acid. Even the aspiring novelist (Joe Lo Truglio), who is also the resident nudist – as we are forced to see full frontal just because the writing duo of David Main & Ken Marino (Role Models) thought it would be naturally funny – works hard (no pun intended) to earn a laugh with sub-par material. But all their collective hustle reminds one of a line you hear athletic coaches say to players who just aren’t on their game: If you’re going to make a mistake, at least go all the way with it.

And that’s what this 98 minute R-rated flick was…a misguided giant mistake. Just when you though there couldn’t be anything worse in this genre than All About Steve, Couples Retreat, and Did You Hear About the Morgans?, this barely fundamental product somehow gets greenlit and ups the ante.

First off, you could care less about Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, who play a thirty-something couple trying to make it in New York City yet are forced to pack up and leave. On their way to live with Rudd’s obnoxious, well-off brother (Ken Marino) in Atlanta, they stop off at this random motel (a giant old house on a big piece of land) where the tenants are permanent and insanely spiritual for a lack of a better term. All of a sudden, Rudd and Aniston decide they want to forget the pressures of the real-world and stay in the more-or-less tree hugging society; after their charismatic leader (Justin Theroux looking like a psychedelic Charlie Manson), convinces them.

Once this occurs – all in the first act, which is a chopped-up messed and paced like four year-old finger painting – there’s barely an ounce of creativity from here on out. There was one conversation that almost had a smidgen of substance toward the end; and yours truly snickered a couple times after some sarcastic banter during the early stages of Rudd and Aniston adapting to their new digs. Yet the single entertaining weapon this screenplay had to offer was lobbing uninspired line after line, thinking they were creative in their delivery, but will only be met with bewildered looks and silence from an audience. And to make matters worse, the use of cheap CGI when Theroux picks up a guitar, along with their midday hallucination gathering, irresponsibly weaved in a stoner-comedy type vibe that simply was forced in. Did the filmmakers have any continuity sense and not realize the tone they set-up prior? Going for a little bit of everything can work, but if you can’t figure out what you want to be initially, then try not to overwhelm yourself, for it will all go to cinematic hell.

The small technical element that they did get right was surprisingly in the costuming department. For example, seeing how Ken Marino dressed told more about his persona than the dialogue in story ever did. You could definitely get a sense of the personas just by giving the characters the eye-test…but then they opened their mouths and this unfunny script burned on.

Overall, Wanderlust is crude filmmaking with a few cast members that gave it a shot. It’s very similar to a sports team of bad players who try but will rarely be able to put it together. But enough with the articulation in being polite and tactful here on my end, this flick is the worst of 2012 thus far. And since 2011 is still fresh in the mind, it could be the bottom of the barrel for that year as well.

Technical: D-

Overall: F

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