I Give It a Year

I Give It a Year writer/director Dan Mazer has described his raunchy feature debut as an ‘anti-rom-com'; a subversion of those well-worn boy-meets-girl movie tropes. But nothing could be further from the truth. Like a Frankenstein’s Monster of the worst characteristics of the movies of Richard Curtis (smugness) and Judd Apatow (misogyny), Mazer’s film delivers every romantic comedy cliché imaginable.

The film opens with Josh (Spall), a slobbish man-child, marrying Nat (Byrne), an uptight PR high-flyer. Unfortunately their honeymoon period proves shorter than their honeymoon. Josh distracts himself from his crumbling marriage by hanging out with Chloe (Faris), his ex, who’s everything his new wife is not - sweet, kind, warm. Nat, meanwhile, is making come-to-bed eyes with her new American client (Baker), who’s everything her new hubby's not - cool, suave, loaded. If you can’t work out who ends up with whom by the rush to the train station finale then you really should stay in more and invest in a Julia Roberts box-set.

Predictability could be tolerated if these characters were in any way interesting, and despite throwing considerable talent at the screen (Olivia Colman and Stephen Merchant turn up in obnoxious cameos and do their worst work ever) I Give It a Year just isn't funny or romantic. So, in that sense, it is an anti-rom-com. [Jamie Dunn]