20151106: Comedy Review--Results

Name: Results (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Comedy  Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Guy Pearce as Trevor, Cobie Smulders as Kat, Kevin Corrigan as Danny, Giovanni Ribisi as Paul, Brooklyn Decker as Erin, Anthony Michael Hall as Grigory, Constance Zimmer as Mandy, Tishuan Scott as Lorenzo, Zoe Graham as Talley, Elizabeth Berridge as Amy (Danny's ex).

Written and directed by:  Andrew Bujalski.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau:  At his local gym, rich but out of shape Danny gets directed to the owner, Trevor.   Trevor interviews Danny, then sets up a schedule with Lorenzo for Danny.  Kat (Trevor's former lover) talks Trevor into letting Danny be her client instead.

Delineation of conflicts:  Kat and Trevor are still attracted to each other, but Trevor wants Kat at arm's length since they are so mismatched.  Danny wants to be with Kat, but Kat does not want to be with him.  Trevor wants to expand his business, but has all these chaotic elements to deal with.  Danny seems to be embracing discipline (diet and exercise, supposedly), but he shows little impulse control (giant TV, newly purchased classic guitar, huge house, weed, paying the gym a year in advance, views sample exercise videos as porn, pays a young man 300 USD to connect up his TV, and so on).  Add in some throw away characters with the attendant noise.

Resolution: Things move forward slowly in jumps, as in 'where did that come from?'

One line summary: Bland romantic comedy with chaotic script.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 6/10 Has that fuzzy, smoggy look of VHS.  The slight but noticeable shaky cam did not help.

  b. Sound: 6/10 Slightly hollow, but OK.

  c. Acting: 4/10 Despite his being in this film, I still like Guy Pearce, who gives value to the viewer no matter how wretched the rest of the film is.  On the other side of the ledger, I did not believe Ribisi's character was a lawyer, nor capable of handling business transactions reliably. Cobie Smulders did not impress me in the episodic TV series How I Met Your Mother and Agents of SHIELD; she was even less effective as an actress in this movie.  Kevin Corrigan convinced me his character liked being inebriated, but did little else.

  d. Screenplay: 4/10 There are lots of islands in the script, but firm connections between the islands are few and far between.

Final rating: 4/10  Hm, I rounded down due to Smulders' terrible effect on the film.