Since its premiere at SXSW, I have been nothing but excited for
this film and its sleeper hit potential. Long Shot is an
incredible romantic comedy that, while it may rely on a few tropes of the genre
now and again, provides a modern and progressive story that any audience can
find themselves loving. This film is the perfect culmination of the styles of
all the cast and crew involved and the chemistry between the two leads is
genuinely believable, despite their wildly contrasting cinematic presences. The
best part about this film, however, are the elements of the story that bring
something fresh to this genre. Not only does this film not rely on traditional
and safe storytelling, but it also contains an actually lovable message, which
is a rare thing amongst the slate of generic romance movies.
Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is the Secretary of State for a
rather incompetent, former-actor President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) who decides
not to seek re-election. When Charlotte decides to run to be the first female
president in 2020, she hires a journalist named Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) to
touch up her speeches and get her to appear more personable for the American
people. Since Fred and Charlotte have known each other since they were kids, their
relationship goes through its ups and downs as they try to balance their
political careers with their growing romantic relationship. The premise of this
film is what I found the most interesting throughout its entirety. While the
plot goes through typically every plot point that most romantic comedies do, it
was the environment and creative story elements that got me so invested in this
film. There are not that many political romantic comedies and even though this
film did not necessarily dig too deep into political themes, there was a
definite overtone that paved the way for guiding the story along. These
elements, especially with Fred having to see things from others' perspectives
and Charlotte balancing her work and romantic life, are what definitely sets
this film apart from the slew of other films in this genre. When approaching a
film like this one with an almost archetypal plot of the goofy guy
getting together with the gorgeous girl, writers need to introduce
some type of element to set themselves apart and this script written
by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah accomplished that in the best way possible.
Theron and Rogen's performances and chemistry are also a big part
of the glue that held this film together. While each of them have such different
histories with the types of films that they make, one might not think that they
would make a believable pair. The writing in this movie proves that otherwise,
as their characters are made out to be so incredibly authentic through actually
relatable issues. What I personally think worked so well for these characters
were the fact that even though Theron might typically take more dramatic roles
and Rogen might not be the first choice in a romantic setting, their individual
styles blended very well together. Fred Flarsky had a lot of the quirks and
expected personality traits that Rogen can portray so well, which brought a
good majority of the humor in this film and made Theron's humorous scenes that
much better. This combined with Charlotte Field's dramatic aspects that Theron
can express in such a elegant way made for the absolute perfect match. Not to
mention that this film did not rely too much on gross humor or mushy romantic
dialogue to carry the story at all. Charlotte and Fred learned so much from each
other throughout the course of this film and these developments definitely
helped to make their relationship so natural.
Rogen and Theron need to start making more films together because
they surprisingly made this one work so well. Long Shot is an
authentic romantic comedy that combines both political themes with comedic
elements in such an amazing way. Even though many of this film's plot points
are fairly predictable, its story has enough creativity in and of itself to
make this movie such a cute and memorable story.
My Rating: ★★★★
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