What If

First Hit: There are really good and engaging moments but it seemed too long overall.

Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is lamenting a breakup from his girlfriend.

It’s been a year and as we meet him, he finally deletes her last VM which he has saved 365 times. This was a good way to give the audience perspective of his sadness. He meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party.

There is an immediate chemistry through their banter. He walks her home and they decided to meet up again but she tells him she has a boyfriend. Through circumstance they meet up and end up being close friends. They spend a lot of time together (which is where the film gets long) in different circumstances and even their friends Nicole and Allan (Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver respectively), seeing their connection, try to get them to get together.

What didn’t work for me was the script having Chantry being so hesitant to acknowledge what was really going on to her. Yes her boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) was a solid guy, but after 5 years together and he didn’t invite her to Dublin to live with him seemed like either a poorly written script or an obvious non-committed relationship.

To have an intelligent character put into this hold position for so long was false.  Her character was too smart to wait so long to make and act on a decision. This in-turn had me not believing the story.

Radcliffe was very good and he projected his restraint towards Chantry with a longing wistfulness that was done very well. Kazan was hampered by the script. I just don’t think she was given the opportunity to make the story better. We all knew the end of the story going into the film. Creating extra delay to get there hurt her ability to perform. Davis and Driver were both amazing and outstanding together. Spall was strong as the solid guy Kazan was waiting for. Elan Mastai wrote the screen play and as I’ve said already there were elongating mistakes in the script that kept the film from moving along to its obvious end. Michael Dowse directed the film and could have driven this film forward in a less meandering way.

Overall: This story had potential but was waylaid by the un-crisp script.

That Awkward Moment

First Hit:  There were some very funny moments in guy oriented film about relationships.

Three friends since college come together again because Mikey (Michael B. Jordan) finds out his wife is having an affair with her divorce attorney.

The other two Jason (Zac Efron) and Daniel (Miles Teller) work together at a book cover company. In order to help Mikey, the three make a deal to go out to bars, meet women, and make no commitment to a relationship - just have fun and get laid. Jason and Daniel have common theme with women – when a woman says “so, where is this relationship…”, these guys leave the women and the possibility of a relationship behind.

Mikey is still in love with his wife Vera (Jessica Lewis) and instead of enjoying the nights out with the boys, he pines for her. Daniel, on the other hand, uses his friend Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis) to get himself introduced to women in bars and have sex with them. However, when they say "so...", he hightails it out of there. 

This is the same story with Jason, who seems to be headstrong about not getting into a relationship, but when he meets Ellie (Imogen Poots) his world begins to be rocked. The scenes of the guys hanging out together, joking with each other, and talking about life gives insight to guys afraid of commitment and to a younger (than me) generation.

A few of the bits are out-loud funny but mostly for a guys kind of humor. For me, one of the funnier scenes was when Jason showed up to a party at Ellie's house totally dressed in the wrong kind of outfit. His vulnerability and ability to deal with his mistake was well acted and very funny.

Efron is cute in his own sort of way and appears to have a good handle on the role. Teller is equally strong in his role and has the total feel of being a jokester. Jordan is a great straight man for the other two while staying clear about his role. Poots is very engaging and it is easy to care about her character. Davis is really good as a part-time free spirit and in giving hints at her longing to be close with Daniel. She was one of the most engaging people in this film. Tom Gormican both wrote and directed this guy oriented film with the women getting what they want in the end.

Overall: I enjoyed this film and although it wasn’t great – it was fun to watch.