Going the Distance (2010)

A romantic comedy centered on a guy and a gal who try to keep their love alive as they shuttle back and forth between New York and San Francisco to see one another.

Director:

Nanette Burstein

Writer:

Geoff LaTulippe

Stars:

Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Drew Barrymore	...	Erin
Justin Long	...	Garrett
Charlie Day	...	Dan
Jason Sudeikis	...	Box
Christina Applegate	...	Corinne
Ron Livingston	...	Will
Oliver Jackson-Cohen	...	Damon
Jim Gaffigan	...	Phil
Natalie Morales	...	Brandy
Kelli Garner	...	Brianna
June Diane Raphael	...	Karen
Rob Riggle	...	Ron
Sarah Burns	...	Harper
Terry Beaver	...	Professor
Matt Servitto	...	Hugh

Storyline

Erin has just six more weeks as an intern at the New York Sentinel before she returns to San Francisco. That's fine with Garrett since he just got out of a relationship. But their relationship blossoms and it quickly becomes something that they can't just drop in six weeks. They admit to wanting to be boyfriend/girlfriend just on opposite coasts. The distance wears on them, as with their nay-saying friends and sister, and soon they are forced to either break up or come up with a solution that has them living in the same city.

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Plot Keywords:

new york | job | intern | bar | record company | 

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Taglines:

A comedy about meeting each other halfway.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content including dialogue, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 September 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Amor a distancia

Filming Locations:

Antarctica Bar - 287 Hudson Street, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£436,361 (UK) (10 September 2010)

Gross:

$17,797,316 (USA) (15 October 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Offspring Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Only the two main characters have complete names: Garrett Austin Scully for Justin Long and Erin Rankin Langford for Drew Barrymore.

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Goofs

After she has an argument in the bar and goes home drunk, Erin has no bag but when she arrives home she has a bag.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Garrett: So...
Amy: So...
Garrett: Happy Birthday
Amy: Oh. Thank you for the take-out.
Garrett: Sure. It's the least I could do. It is your birthday after all.

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Connections

References The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

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Soundtracks

"Cold Fame"
Written by Matt Hayward, Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson
Performed by Band of Skulls
Courtesy of Shangri-La Music, LLC/ Phi / YouAreHere
By Arrangement with Zync Music Group LLC

User Reviews

Profanity and jokes covering up poor writing, but it's still a romantic comedy

"Going the Distance" is just a romantic comedy, but an adequate one. Justin Long and Drew Barrymore have real chemistry, making it seem fairly romantic, and Long and his friends are actually very funny men, making the film come across as more funny and less not-funny.

I generally really like films picking simple stories and just telling them straight. For the most part, this film did that. But here the problem is when they bothered to include sub-plots, they were meaningless and then dropped. This unfortunately just highlights the poor writing. Then trying to cover up the poor writing, they added lots of profanity and many off-topic jokes. There is no problem with profanity, it's just that there wasn't much need for it here.

Now let's talk about jokes - which both make and break this film. It is laugh-out-loud funny in places, and now, I am even more of a believer that Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are very much underrated, great comedic actors. Their timing was flawless and they were even able to make lame jokes seem funny. So, yes, I laughed, but the problem is the majority of the jokes were thrown in for the sole purpose of a laugh, and they had little to do with the storyline of the film. They were laugh-out-loud vulgar, not laugh-out-loud smart.

"Going the Distance" is a romantic comedy for those that like romantic comedies. It is written better than some, and at least you are laughing enough so you don't notice how poor it is.