PICHPOSH Movie Reviews
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Going The Distance (Comedy - 18A - 93 mins)
***1/2 (out of 5)
August 20, 2004
BY GARRETT PICH
It is Friday afternoon, best way to start the weekend is with a matinee. I am there to escape and have fun, “Going The Distance” offered a little of both. This is simple teen road trip movie about first love, getting laid, and getting to Toronto in time to see “The Much Music Video Awards” (one of the producers behind this film) and make a wedding proposal there, with the back drop of Canada as another character, (an underdeveloped character at that). The first half of this film takes advantage of the postcard backdrops of British Columbia, after that it stumbles in the prairies, a missed opportunity to showcase more of Canada’s incredible scenery. I don’t want to get down on this film, but it has a weak start and the lead Nick (Christopher Jacot) is boring and not interesting. Nick’s girlfriend Trish (Katheryn Winnick) seems interesting, in a porn star kind of way, well I guess Blonde Bomb shell, Pam Anderson is a native from the island as well, so I guess girls like that come from there, (don't get me wrong, I like Pam Anderson, she is a proud Canadian). Trish’s character is lost in this movie even though she is the motivation for this cross country odyssey.
I hate talking about plot, that said, it is not clear who we are suppose to care about in this film, and do we care what is happening? Tyler (Shawn Roberts) is the jocky raunchy surfing sidekick to Nick, a very easy on the eyes interesting cowboy hat wearing character that demands your attention. When Shawn’s character is on the screen, his matinee smile is thrilling and there is a star in the making. Then we have more less interesting characters like Jill (Mayko Nguyen) the token minority hitch hiking sidekick to Sasha (Joanne Kelly) the singing hitch hiker and Dime (Ryan Belleville) the comic sidekick to sidekick Tyler, are all time wasting supporting characters which are only half developed, and seem to steal away from Nick’s story, which we really don’t care about. This film wants us to believe awkward looking Sasha (Joanne Kelly) should be the character that we care for. Sasha is the second choice for a girlfriend for Nick. Joanne Kelly’s very large upper lip is somewhat distracting, but she is captivating to watch, a cross between Liv Tyler and Sarah McLachlan. Does she sing, I ask myself? Is it important?
The “Much Music Video Awards” seem like an odd product placement and seems in opposition to the style of the rest of the film, but it somewhat worked. This film is entirely predictable. I loved the shots of the mountains in BC but the whole feel of a road trip going across Canada, seems to get lost. Canada is a big place and its like the filmmakers got bored and said lets speed this up and get to Toronto, enough of this cross Canada thing. Speaking of this Canada thing, I just finish watching the two, one hour long Canadian Idol shows the last two days featuring the Music of Gordon Lightfoot. I am not used to three days of so much Canadian content in one week. Could I be losing touch with our shared American Culture because of this? Really I welcome all of this Canadian pop culture with pride. Even with this pride this movie doesn’t quite go the distance, it accomplishes all the simple goals it sets, from coast to coast; sex, drugs as well as a little rock and roll. I enjoyed this Canadian road trip.
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