On the surface, romantic-comedy Going the Distance looks like every other forgettable rom-com that comes and goes with making waves. It even has a terrible title. What it has in its favour is two important aspects. Firstly, a good concept; long distance relationships and the difficulties they create. Secondly, the pairing of Drew Barrymore and Justin Long.
Natural chemistry is a hard thing to come by, especially as actors can rarely replicate perfectly the ease that comes with knowing someone that well. Even when actual couples work together as movie couples, the results are no better than as if the actors were perfect strangers. See Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and The Getaway (1993) as two examples. Going the Distance (kind of) defies the rules. Barrymore and Long have been a couple in the past and the ease that they feel around each other draws you into the film and allows you to collude in the relationship struggles as if you were one of their stereotypical comic friends. This allows the development of the relationship, which moves quickly, to also move realistically and the sexuality of the film, a lot of which is crude, to feel like a natural progression, rather than forced comedy.
Going the Distance is a refreshing and surprisingly realistic romantic-comedy.
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