This was one of the most confused films I have seen in a long time.
The Long Run starts looking and feeling like a romantic comedy - and for the first 15 minutes it is good - girl dumps boy, boy is convinced by friend to go on a "run" - a sexual quest to bed as many women as possible - but then from nowhere turns into a "ooh I'm so miserable" drama about sex addiction - it is horribly unbalanced piece of writing - and it is the script's fault. It is trying to be too much, and cannot pull off a very difficult and complicated arc of a storyline so instead opts for absurdity and the theatrical instead - and I don't mean that in a fun or funny way - there just are no laughs to be found here - or the luaghs are extremely cheap.
Strangely, all the performances are basically sound - but I didn't for one minute buy any of the premises put forward here,
So here's the problem: the script plots and turns seems to have develop as the story was written - it lacks a sense of clear direction - the redemption and resolution are disappointing, unrealistic, and frankly maudlin, and hugely depressing - but not even in a "well we all learnt something here" kind of way.
I could not really get to the heart of this - a moral tale? the broken heart? the 20s male? I felt no sympathy for either of the male leads - they are both moral vacuums - and seem unable to establish any meaning in their lives - and perhaps this is the point - the ennui of the sexual male cannot be met or matched so he has as many casual sexual relationships to fill the void - while I got it I found the style of the film highly bizarre and unsatisfactory - it looks, feels, and is shot like a light romantic comedy - but contains a lot of pretty nasty drama type situations. And in the middle a lot of absolutely gratuitous sex. Arguing that we need a film about sex addiciton needs as much as nudity as possible is justified - it just ain't right - and comes across as an attempt to titillate the viewer - strangely boring - the direction is sloppy.
Hugely disappointing and unsatisfactory - the arc of the main characters fall from from grace is implausible and unsatisfactory - and it is not tragic or fun, or even pathetic, it is bathos - an incongruous mix of high and low - and that is never a good thing.
Definitely not a date movie that's for sure.
A failure.
The Long Run starts looking and feeling like a romantic comedy - and for the first 15 minutes it is good - girl dumps boy, boy is convinced by friend to go on a "run" - a sexual quest to bed as many women as possible - but then from nowhere turns into a "ooh I'm so miserable" drama about sex addiction - it is horribly unbalanced piece of writing - and it is the script's fault. It is trying to be too much, and cannot pull off a very difficult and complicated arc of a storyline so instead opts for absurdity and the theatrical instead - and I don't mean that in a fun or funny way - there just are no laughs to be found here - or the luaghs are extremely cheap.
Strangely, all the performances are basically sound - but I didn't for one minute buy any of the premises put forward here,
So here's the problem: the script plots and turns seems to have develop as the story was written - it lacks a sense of clear direction - the redemption and resolution are disappointing, unrealistic, and frankly maudlin, and hugely depressing - but not even in a "well we all learnt something here" kind of way.
I could not really get to the heart of this - a moral tale? the broken heart? the 20s male? I felt no sympathy for either of the male leads - they are both moral vacuums - and seem unable to establish any meaning in their lives - and perhaps this is the point - the ennui of the sexual male cannot be met or matched so he has as many casual sexual relationships to fill the void - while I got it I found the style of the film highly bizarre and unsatisfactory - it looks, feels, and is shot like a light romantic comedy - but contains a lot of pretty nasty drama type situations. And in the middle a lot of absolutely gratuitous sex. Arguing that we need a film about sex addiciton needs as much as nudity as possible is justified - it just ain't right - and comes across as an attempt to titillate the viewer - strangely boring - the direction is sloppy.
Hugely disappointing and unsatisfactory - the arc of the main characters fall from from grace is implausible and unsatisfactory - and it is not tragic or fun, or even pathetic, it is bathos - an incongruous mix of high and low - and that is never a good thing.
Definitely not a date movie that's for sure.
A failure.