Going the Distance

Directed by Nanette Burnstein

(R)

**

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Going the Distance falls somewhere between a chick flick and a Judd Apatow comedy, said David Fear in Time Out New York. Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe and director Nanette Burnstein seem to think that if you “tart up a typical romantic comedy” with vulgarities and sexual patter, your film will seem “edgy and real.” Drew Barrymore and Justin Long star as 30-somethings whose summer fling turns into a long-distance romance fraught with frustrations when they find themselves stuck on opposite coasts. Going the Distance succeeds because it shows how times really have changed, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Young people really are coarser than in past generations, though “love and intimacy have the same urgency as ever.” The film also proves true to life by portraying how a shrinking economy affects the characters’ romantic lives. Unfortunately, that concept is stronger than the execution, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. This would-be of-the-moment rom-com plays as little more than “a compilation of contemporary images and concerns” interrupted by immature humor.