on the regular, you probably don't know the name Josh Radnor. Heck, even if you do watch it you might not recognize it. He's actually the show's central character, but he's grabbing his Zach Braff moment and branching out into the realm of feature film making. He both wrote and directed the quirky indie comedy, happythankyoumoreplease, and of course he's also the main character. Before you ask, yes that IS the film's title. A mash-up of platitudes which explains the film better than I ever could. Basically the film is about a bunch of hip, young New Yorkers trying to do whatever it takes to find happiness and acceptance.Backed by emo-rock tunes you'd be scared to let friends know is on your Ipod. Yep, it's one of those indies where everybody's lives intersect, and the characters are walking cliches, but there's a reason why cliches exist. If done well, they always work. There's a joy in this film that makes it very easy to ignore the occasional triteness. Sam(Radnor) is that most obvious of indie film stereotypes, the failed writer. Unshaven and dripping with slacker attitude, he's a guy clearly struggling with the idea of being an adult. Early on in the film as Sam is trying to pitch his floundering novel, an editor(played by Richard Jenkins!) tell him “Your protagonist, I don’t know if you want people to love this guy or hate this guy. He’s kind of ambitious, kind of mature." That would be Sam in a nutshell. His world is flipped upside down when he inadvertently "adopts" a quiet, orphan African-American boy named Rasheen. How do you accidentally adopt someone? Apparently very easily. Abandoned on a metro train, Rasheen is rescued by Sam and just sorta keeps hanging around. Sam's best friend, Annie(Malin Akerman), is a smart, beautiful woman first and foremost. She's stricken with alopecia, which causes her to be bald, but this isn't really a factor. It's just a neat little layer to her character. Annie is desperately trying to find love, and looking for it in all the wrong places. Ironically, she's hung up on the physical attractiveness of others, while she's clearly the type who would condemn those who do that to her. Her dorky co-worker(Tony Hale) who clearly wants to ask her out? He doesn't stand a chance. Sam's cousin, Mary(Zoe Kazan), is struggling her long time relationship with Charlie(Pablo Schreiber). The two are at a crossroads. She's a New York gal all the way, while he yearns for a life on the west coast.
Then there's Mississippi(Kate Mara), an idealistic but emotionally fractured waitress from...Mississippi of course. She has dreams of being a singer, and has a history of bad relationship choices. She can add dating Sam to that list. Their relationship is flawed from the start. A one night stand turns into an awkward living arrangement. Both are way too self destructive to make the relationship last. Or is it possible they may be perfect for each other for the very same reason?
Radnor employs a much lighter tone than Zach Braff did with his feature debut, Garden State, but then again this film isn't trying to be nearly as deep. Clearly going for a tone somewhere between Woody Allen and Ed Burns, Radnor's script is quippy and light hearted, most effective when focused on Sam's circle of friends. The relationship between Sam and Mississippi borders on sitcom artificiality, but I adored the bond established between Sam and Rasheen. That storyline had the most potential to be disastrously uncomfortable and misguided, but turns out to be very smart and heartwarming. Malin Akerman is superb enough that I hope people will stop bashing her over Watchmen. I only wish there was more time to focus on her and the self image problems she has. The same can be said of Mary and Charlie's dilemma, and the achingly honest portrayal by Kazan and Schreiber. The film is so much stronger when the focus is taken off of Sam, partially because I think Radnor tries to play his character too much for humor even when it doesn't make sense. The film's biggest problem is that there simply isn't enough time to tell everyone's story effectively. I could've used an entire film just on Annie and her issues.
One of the things I kept saying while watching this was "Only in movie like this would that happen". That's not a bad thing. I actually appreciate a movie that isn't shy about being overly romantic and yes, a bit cheesy. I like a movie where a geek can give an impassioned plea for love to the woman of his dreams and it actually works. I wish there were more movies that had the level of optimism that this one does. Far from being a perfect film, it's a bold first step for Josh Radnor, which hopefully he'll better capitalize on than Zach Braff did.
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