This is not a movie about dating, it is not a movie about being a single and it is surely not a romantic comedy. Wtf? Well, it is all that, but still something completely different that most critics and reviewers don't seem to get. It is about a young man who tries to act like a "mensch" and find love, while his surrounding wants to fill him up with the typical American clichés about sex, relationship and live in general.
We see him confronted with friends reducing the relationship between man and women to business-school-babble or baseball, who talk him into functionalizing sex, he is confronted with racists and cynical CEO's who have real fun dismissing their employees. When he cautiously mentions that some of those people are good at their work and have kids, they explain to him that being an asshole is the way to make money in this society and he can leave as well. (And for the first time in an American movie I saw normal (!!!) unemployed people that are not depicted as alcoholics, drug addicts or other completely miserable and depressed drop-outs!) The movies shows that stop playing the game is actually an option!
And then there is the TV that invades his daydreams and tries to explain the world - but it is just as ridiculous as the two politicians in a TV debate that is shown over and over. Even in the end, after giving an irritating mediocre speech about love, he adds "---I think this is what Oprah said."
For me this is a movie that uses the rom com-stereotypes (in a skillfull and funny way) to tell a story about how to keep your brain and authenticity together in an American mainstream-version of reality.
Beyond that: The camera work is great, the acting of Aaron Tveit is fantastic and his depicted character is absolutely believable and lovable, the shrink of Charlie is one of the most memorable characters in movie of all times, the surreal distortions are great.
Maybe you have to be European to have the necessary distance - whatsoever: watch this movie, forget everything you expect of rom coms! This is something else!
We see him confronted with friends reducing the relationship between man and women to business-school-babble or baseball, who talk him into functionalizing sex, he is confronted with racists and cynical CEO's who have real fun dismissing their employees. When he cautiously mentions that some of those people are good at their work and have kids, they explain to him that being an asshole is the way to make money in this society and he can leave as well. (And for the first time in an American movie I saw normal (!!!) unemployed people that are not depicted as alcoholics, drug addicts or other completely miserable and depressed drop-outs!) The movies shows that stop playing the game is actually an option!
And then there is the TV that invades his daydreams and tries to explain the world - but it is just as ridiculous as the two politicians in a TV debate that is shown over and over. Even in the end, after giving an irritating mediocre speech about love, he adds "---I think this is what Oprah said."
For me this is a movie that uses the rom com-stereotypes (in a skillfull and funny way) to tell a story about how to keep your brain and authenticity together in an American mainstream-version of reality.
Beyond that: The camera work is great, the acting of Aaron Tveit is fantastic and his depicted character is absolutely believable and lovable, the shrink of Charlie is one of the most memorable characters in movie of all times, the surreal distortions are great.
Maybe you have to be European to have the necessary distance - whatsoever: watch this movie, forget everything you expect of rom coms! This is something else!