Long Shot: Film Review

Long Shot: Film Review

Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Alexander Skarsgard, June Diane Raphael, Andy Serkis
Director: Jonathan Levine

Imagine a wish-fulfillment West Wing romcom, set in the Seth Rogen Cinematic Stoner Universe that's mixed with heart and humour - and highs.

That in a nutshell is what Long Shot is.

Rogen stars as principled, but out-of-work journalist Fred Flarsky, who bumps into his former babysitter-turned-US-Secretary-of-State Charlotte Field (Theron) by accident at a party.

With a friendship rekindled, and with Field deciding to run for the presidency, Flarsky's recruited to the team as a speech-writer, much to the chagrin of Field's closest aides...

A little too long at two hours, Long Shot is a film which combines the usual Rogen stoner antics and outrageous crass moments and pairs them up with the kind of romantic elements previously seen before in many odd couple movies.

But whereas Rogen usually dials up the schlubby elements in his films, it's pleasing to note that in Flarsky's interactions with Field, rather than with his bros, there's a genuine warmth and feeling of an old relationship floating around. It helps build a plausibility for a romance that frankly is the classic out-of-your-league kind of material.

The film's other great strength is Theron.

Displaying an empathy and delivering many quips, Theron's the beating heart of Long Shot, a portrait of a woman who has it all, but whose inevitable path to romance is not to her character's detriment.

There's something of a Notting Hill style romance in here as well, but sparked through with R18 edges. Skarsgard trades well on a parody of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one who has looks but little else behind the eyes and toothy grin.

It's not to say that Long Shot doesn't misfire from time to time - but it does so while dispensing some strong unexpected laughs during proceedings.

Occasionally, a tonal shift into drama is delivered with a cinematic whiplash that's hard to shake and the whole thing could easily lose some 20 minutes of its meandering in the final strait, but overall, the heart of Long Shot is hard to deny.

It may be a riff on the odd matched romcoms of the 80s, but given its commitment to two likeable leads and a few sentimental edges which benefit from a sharpness, Long Shot proves to be a deeply enjoyable movie to shake us all out of a mid-winter malaise.