"i've got a tip for you..."

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, a real life on-and-off couple, play Erin and Garrett, two young professionals/students tackling a long-distance relationship in their latest film, Going the Distance. That brief synopsis alone opens the film up to expectations of overused romance cliches--or, more succinctly, failure. Yet despite all the odds working against it, Going the Distance is probably the perfect romantic comedy. It couples both what you expect with the unexpected, and it's realistic. Somehow it just... works.

Two actors dating before or during the filming of a movie usually cause a film to collapse, but the chemistry between Drew and Justin is so strong that it actually helps, making it much more believable and down-to-earth, compared to the normally dreamy pairings that we usually see. They were cute and funny together, just as you'd expect to see in any film of this type, but they also challenged each other.

I know many guys who would be hesitant to see this film because it would be categorized as a romantic comedy or a "chick flick," but I find it to be more of a guy's chick flick, if you know what I'm saying. It's a guy's romantic comedy. It has just the amount of sexuality and raunchy humor to balance out the emotionally sensitive scenes (which I feel came more from the guy's persepective anyway). I laughed much more than I expected to; from the trailer, I thought it would be a sappy movie about two people on the phone the entire time, but I got that and more. It's genuinely funny, and doesn't try too hard. Sure, the cliches are there. The potential plot devices you might expect in this type of story are there, too. But the acting counteracts all of that, distracting you from the fact that you might have seen this story before. All of the actors worked off of each other so well; you believed that these people would be friends or talk this way in real life. There was no overly romantic cheese. It was all very real.

The only other film of late that I can think to compare it to is (500) Days of Summer; not in a plot sense, but in the way that it leaves you feeling like you connected with the characters and that this is how relationships actually are. Take it from someone who's been two long-distance relationships, this movie was the perfect balance of humor and nostalgia to draw me in. There was also a surprise cameo by Leighton Meester in the beginning, which was a good sign :) I'll definitely be adding this to my collection when it comes out. Overall Rating: A-.