Review: Wanderlust

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Wanderlust

If David Wain fans have one thing to be thankful for, it's the fact that the usual cast of character actors in his projects must genuinely like each other if they work together so much. It shows in the comfort level they have with each other and makes it so they can make comedies that get bolder and bolder. Wanderlust certainly is bold.

Unfortunately, that comfort level and willingness to cross the line might have been too much, resulting in a movie that just feels kinda flat. I don't know if moviegoers who aren't familiar with some of David Wain's other films will quite be ready for what seems at first like a good-hearted comedy about a down-in-the-dumps couple discovering themselves in a hippie commune. Wanderlust is definitely good hearted, but it's also a joltingly graphic film.

George (Paul Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston) are a young married couple looking to take that next step in their lives, owning a tiny apartment in New York City. George isn't so sure, but Linda really loves the place and feels it's where they need to be. They're in a good place in their lives: George has a good job, and Linda is getting ready to sell a documentary about penguins to HBO, so it makes sense to buy property at this point. Well, when HBO passes on Linda's documentary and George's job lays him off, they don't have much choice but to go to Atlanta to live with George's irritating brother Rick (co-writer Ken Marino).

Along the way when they need to stop for the night, they come across a very friendly naked man who leads them to community of people that show George and Linda how fulfilling a life with no societal ties can be. They are immediately smitten with this new lifestyle and decide to give it a shot.

Wanderlust has its moments, but it's also got its problems. Which sounds like a generic complaint, but that complaint is a genuine difficulty. The movie tries so hard to make you laugh at its jokes that you're never able to laugh at the story, which has never been a problem in other David Wain/Ken Marino films. In their other films, characters usually grow or change in some way, but the leads here just seem to go with whatever is convenient at the moment.

The jokes that are there do deliver for the most part. The issue comes when jokes are repeated ad nauseum. The nudist who makes wine shows up several times on screen and someone always draws notice to the fact that he's naked, even though that his thing, he's a nudist after all. Justin Theroux's character, Seth, even makes a strange change towards the end of the movie that seems completely illogical and just comes out of nowhere.

Wanderlust never settles into itself. It's a shame because it's a based on a great idea, and if the filmmakers and cast hadn't been so focused on making each other laugh, they might have made a movie that's going to be funny on more than one viewing. There's certainly an audience for this film, and those familiar with David Wain's films might get enough of what they're familiar with to enjoy this, but general audiences just might not appreciate how funny this cast thinks it is here.