Stars brings endearing quality to film’s cliché premise

Can a romantic comedy work if the two leading players spend most of the movie in separate places? Going the Distance proves that it can — with a little effort and the right two people. The romance itself, though, is a different story.

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long star as Erin and Garrett, two early 30-somethings in a cross-country relationship. Garrett is a New Yorker with commitment problems, and Erin, a graduate student from San Francisco with an unpaid internship, is only in New York for the summer. They share a somewhat unoriginal first meeting over an arcade game at a bar (although Erin’s high score on the video game tells us she’s not like the proverbial “other girls”), and begin what is meant to be six weeks of purely casual dating before Erin returns to California.

But, as we see in the charming — if somewhat cliché — montage of their time together, Erin and Garrett start to fall for each other; when the time comes to say goodbye, they can’t do it. They decide to try the long-distance thing and the film shows us the ups and downs of that risky endeavor, from expensive flights to surprise visits and awkward attempts at phone sex. But as more serious issues arise, Erin and Garrett must ultimately choose between love and career.

One of the movie’s greatest assets is its cultural relevance, which it maintains without throwing its “trendiness” in your face. Going the Distance confronts the new economic reality of life in a recession. Like Erin, college grads of all ages are taking unpaid internships while companies lay off their paid employees. With today’s dearth of jobs, is it really realistic to choose love over financial security?

Ten years ago, a rom-com couple like this one — Erin is an aspiring journalist and Garrett, who works for a record label — would have been the picture of young success, but today both professions are threatened by the Internet, and Erin and Garrett must deal with the challenges faced by their respective industries. Fortunately, the movie doesn’t use the economic downturn as a gimmicky plot device. It is simply the reality that Erin and Garrett, like the rest of us, must face, making the difficulties of their romance resonate that much more.

Real-life on-again, off-again couple Barrymore and Long are both unceasingly likable and charming enough to make you care, even when the story doesn’t provide much in terms of a believable relationship. They come off not as big movie stars who know exactly how good-looking they are, but as real people.

Barrymore and Long capture perfectly the multitude of awkward moments that can occur early in a relationship, but we also see how genuinely happy they make each other; Barrymore’s sparkling smile and Long’s boyish grin always feel natural.

Long and Barrymore essentially play feed men to the ridiculous ensemble cast that surrounds them. Christina Applegate and comedian Jim Gaffigan get laughs as Erin’s intense, neat-freak sister and deadbeat brother-in-law. Jason Sudeikis of Saturday Night Live and Charlie Day of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia play Garrett’s crude-but-loyal best friends. Sudeikis excels at the sex jokes and genital humor, but his dimensionless macho attitude sometimes crosses the line into just plain annoying.

Day essentially plays the same simple-minded character that he does so well on It’s Always Sunny, and fortunately, his odd brand of humor translates perfectly on the big screen. The absolute sincerity of Day’s delivery, whether giving relationship advice while using the bathroom with the door open or giving an impassioned speech on masturbation at a crowded intersection, makes him both likable and hysterically funny.

At times, however, screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe relies too much on the supposedly intrinsic humor of phallic jokes and not enough on genuinely clever writing. The film could easily have done without some of the more explicit (and less funny) dialogue while still maintaining its humor and heart.

Going the Distance doesn’t provide anything revolutionary in the way of romantic comedies, but the concept is original enough and the actors charming enough to make it enjoyable. Although long-distance relationships in today’s economy might be difficult, at least they can be funny.