Movie Review - I Give It a Year

I Give It a Year (2013)

Starring Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Anna Faris, Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Simon Baker, and Olivia Colman

Directed by Dan Mazer

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

I Give It a Year started out so promisingly.  Through a quickly paced montage, we see how Nat and Josh (Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall) meet and fall in love, leading up to their wedding.  Their reception is filled with hilarity thanks to Josh's best bud Danny (Stephen Merchant), but then the film skips ahead about eight months and Nat and Josh find themselves sitting in a marriage counselor's office talking about how they jumped into things too quickly and may not have been as compatible as they thought.  Through flashbacks we see that Josh has never really gotten over his girlfriend prior to Nat, an American named Chloe (Anna Faris) and the fact that they're trying to remain friends puts a strain on his current relationship.  Nat, on the other hand, is finding herself falling for an American herself -- a businessman (Simon Baker) whose suave and debonair demeanor is a bit more of a perfect match for her than Josh's lovable carefreeness.

Unfortunately, as I look back upon the film, I realize that even the humor that I enjoyed wasn't natural to the film itself.  In those opening minutes, I laughed more times than I can count thanks to Stephen Merchant's inappropriate speeches at the wedding and the reception.  However, Merchant's character seems out of place and affected as opposed to being intrinsic to the plot.  Similarly, the aforementioned marriage counselor (played by Olivia Colman) is a caricature rather than a real person.  The same could be said for Minnie Driver's best friend character whose purpose other than to provide a snarky comment here or there is beyond me.

The film doesn't help its leading actors either.  Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall -- both of whom are perfectly pleasant to watch and are fine in the acting department -- are bland and aren't given anything to do except stand around and get pissed off or glare at their partner so that doesn't help matters either.  Simon Baker is nothing except "The Perfect Guy," so his character is a bit yawn-inducing.  And poor Anna Faris is given a purportedly hilarious scene involving her character's experimentation in a threesome that is so incredibly out of place, I found myself cringing at writer-director Dan Mazur's taste levels.

I Give It a Year wasn't offensively bad, but I can't say it's worth your time either.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-