Ruben, a talented but shy risk assessment expert, is getting married with his long time girlfriend Lisa (Debra Messing). At his wedding, his best friend, Sandy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a has-been and bad wannabe actor, is his best man and his boss, Stan Indursky (Alec Baldwin), the master of ceremony. However, during the honeymoon in the Caribbean islands, he surprises his wife having sex with the French scuba diving instructor, Claude (Hank Azaria). Back in town where everybody seems to be aware of his wife's infidelity, Ruben meets an old classmate from junior high, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) at a party where she's a waitress. After many hesitations and against the advice from his friend Sandy, he decides to invite her for a date. But there seems to be a great opposition in the life style of the cautious and stable Ruben and the outgoing, spontaneous and risk-taker Polly Prince.
Having seen the trailer and clips from this movie and being familiar with those before being actually able to see it, I must admit that I had a wrong idea of the movie. The difference is probably an example of American Puritanism. In the trailer, when Claude talks to Lisa and Ruben on the beach, he wears a bathing suit, which is absent in the movie and the cause of Ruben's problems. The writer and director of the movie did not bother to exert a scatological sense of humor (i. e. the conversation between Ruben and his boss in the lavatory, the toast from his boss at his wedding, Ruben in the bathroom of Polly after the exotic restaurant). But I must admit that the movie is really funny. It also reveals what most of the young occidental people are experiencing now. In the time where AIDS is a big concern for everybody, the cautious attitude of Ruben is that of millions of young adults today, too shy to live their life fully not only with their body but also with their feelings. In this respect, this theme resembles that of Amelie except that, when J.-P. Jeunet added some poetry in his movie, Along came Polly is more on the American comedy side (the most basic one). But it's fair entertainment, 6/10.
Having seen the trailer and clips from this movie and being familiar with those before being actually able to see it, I must admit that I had a wrong idea of the movie. The difference is probably an example of American Puritanism. In the trailer, when Claude talks to Lisa and Ruben on the beach, he wears a bathing suit, which is absent in the movie and the cause of Ruben's problems. The writer and director of the movie did not bother to exert a scatological sense of humor (i. e. the conversation between Ruben and his boss in the lavatory, the toast from his boss at his wedding, Ruben in the bathroom of Polly after the exotic restaurant). But I must admit that the movie is really funny. It also reveals what most of the young occidental people are experiencing now. In the time where AIDS is a big concern for everybody, the cautious attitude of Ruben is that of millions of young adults today, too shy to live their life fully not only with their body but also with their feelings. In this respect, this theme resembles that of Amelie except that, when J.-P. Jeunet added some poetry in his movie, Along came Polly is more on the American comedy side (the most basic one). But it's fair entertainment, 6/10.