A Guy Thing

A regular JoBlo is in love and about to be married to the girl of his dreams. During his bachelor party, the dude drinks a little too much and wakes up the next morning with a girl by his side (not his fiancée). Fair enough. But what’s the groom-to-be to do when he later bumps into that same girl at a family function? That’s right…the girl is also his bride-to-be’s cousin! Hilarity ensues?

A cute romantic comedy that doesn’t even pretend to be original, but offers a number of laughs, endearing actors in Jason Lee and Julia Stiles and a nice connection between the two. Nobody’s gonna mistake this rehash for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, but other than its final act, which loses some energy and doesn’t really spare us from any of its utter predictability, I can’t say that I wasn’t amused by most of what came before it, including a handful of memorable sequences. One such sequence features the always charming Lee trying to get out of a jam when his fiancée discovers a woman’s undergarment in his apartment (nice going, pal) and another which, once again, features the still charming Lee giving the cops a “description” of the guy who jumped him. Nice. Films like this (ones that aren’t particularly creative in script) are also enriched by a likeable supporting cast and a few of the side players are also entertaining here as well. Larry Miller, who has stolen more than his fair share of scenes in previous movies, comes through as the priest with an attitude here, as well as the dance teacher, who is featured in a running joke throughout the film, and cracked me up every time (especially that shot of Lee with the “thumbs up”). Jason Lee is also starting to remind me more and more of a young Chevy Chase, and I suppose with him being courted for the lead in Kevin Smith’s FLETCH LIVES, it’s all starting to come together for the man.

I would advise that he not get into a groove of taking too many of these recyclable comedies though. Speaking of which, there was one particularly recycled joke featuring Lee trying to get himself some “crab medicine” from a pharmacy, which I’ve seen in a zillion films before (including Woody Allen’s very funny BANANAS), but was still somewhat amusing. There’s nothing like a dude being embarrassed in front of a bunch of other people to make one laugh. The directing in the film was also pretty basic (although I liked how it would give us a quick look “into the future” every now and again) but I was amused with how they kept re-iterating that they were in Seattle (look kids, it’s the Space Needle!), just to re-confirm that the film was obviously shot in Vancouver! Yawn. In the end, much like any goofy comedy, the humor is in the ear of the beholder (ugh, what a horrible line…my apologies), so if Jason Lee is funny to you, Julia Stiles is adorable to you and kicking your heels back for an hour and a half sounds like a good idea to you, A GUY THING could just be your thing.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian