R-rated rom-com What’s Your Number? starring Anna Faris and Chris Evans fails to deliver much rom, or com for that matter…
What’s Your Number?, right from the start, makes some wise decisions. It casts Anna Faris first and foremost, a comedy actress whose roles rarely give her talents the platform they deserve. It then brings in Chris Evans as her co-star. He’s massively underused in the film, but he’s got a natural charm and energy, and some staggering muscles, that make him completely likeable.
And, in the spirit of many good rom-coms, What’s Your Number? is adept in the recruitment of its supporting cast. There’s a fine, important cameo from Ed Begley Jr, for starters, as well as a rare romantic comedy outing for Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto. Martin Freeman’s even allowed on the screen for a couple of minutes, and it’s the carousel of faces that keep What’s Your Number? from spluttering to a stop.
But it becomes clear fairly early on that it needs all the help it can get. It’s not just the slight premise (woman reads articles that says 96% of women don’t get married if they sleep with more than 20 people, woman realises she’s slept with 19 people, woman vows to not go over 20
and thus look back over her ex-boyfriends for her potential husband) that’s the problem, either. Rom-coms are often built on the flimsiest of foundations, and just about manage to pull it together.
No, What’s Your Number? has bigger problems, specifically the lack of romance, and the lack of comedy. These are, traditionally, ingredients that are quite useful for a romantic comedy, and yet this one has neither. It has a slight charm, as Anna Faris works her socks off to sell the material (given that she’s listed as executive producer, though, you wonder if she should have put in a bit more work behind the scenes as well), and Chris Evans is utterly watchable, as always.
But no firm decisions have been made here. A smattering of swear words and the occasional lack of clothes suggests that, on the one hand, What’s Your Number? is going for the bawdier end of the market. And yet the film is anchored around a wedding, and fairly straightforward genre conventions. What’s Your Number? is thus neither your run of the mill rom-com, nor something willing to shake the formula up.
In short, it doesn’t add up to much at all.
What lifts if from the bottom of the barrel usually reserved for recent Katherine Heigl vehicles are Faris and Evans, as well as those few minutes of Ed Begley Jr. But they’re, as it turns out, scant consolation for wrapping a night out around seeing a film such as this.
What’s Your Number? isn’t a dull film. It’s not actually a boring one, either. But it is a grey one, content to tick a few boxes, offer the illusion that it might try something different, and instead it smiles sweetly at you as it parades the a dilution of genre clichés instead.
This one’s been buried in a September release slot for a reason.
And, in the spirit of many good rom-coms, What’s Your Number? is adept in the recruitment of its supporting cast. There’s a fine, important cameo from Ed Begley Jr, for starters, as well as a rare romantic comedy outing for Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto. Martin Freeman’s even allowed on the screen for a couple of minutes, and it’s the carousel of faces that keep What’s Your Number? from spluttering to a stop.
But it becomes clear fairly early on that it needs all the help it can get. It’s not just the slight premise (woman reads articles that says 96% of women don’t get married if they sleep with more than 20 people, woman realises she’s slept with 19 people, woman vows to not go over 20
and thus look back over her ex-boyfriends for her potential husband) that’s the problem, either. Rom-coms are often built on the flimsiest of foundations, and just about manage to pull it together.
No, What’s Your Number? has bigger problems, specifically the lack of romance, and the lack of comedy. These are, traditionally, ingredients that are quite useful for a romantic comedy, and yet this one has neither. It has a slight charm, as Anna Faris works her socks off to sell the material (given that she’s listed as executive producer, though, you wonder if she should have put in a bit more work behind the scenes as well), and Chris Evans is utterly watchable, as always.
But no firm decisions have been made here. A smattering of swear words and the occasional lack of clothes suggests that, on the one hand, What’s Your Number? is going for the bawdier end of the market. And yet the film is anchored around a wedding, and fairly straightforward genre conventions. What’s Your Number? is thus neither your run of the mill rom-com, nor something willing to shake the formula up.
In short, it doesn’t add up to much at all.
What lifts if from the bottom of the barrel usually reserved for recent Katherine Heigl vehicles are Faris and Evans, as well as those few minutes of Ed Begley Jr. But they’re, as it turns out, scant consolation for wrapping a night out around seeing a film such as this.
What’s Your Number? isn’t a dull film. It’s not actually a boring one, either. But it is a grey one, content to tick a few boxes, offer the illusion that it might try something different, and instead it smiles sweetly at you as it parades the a dilution of genre clichés instead.
This one’s been buried in a September release slot for a reason.
