That awkward moment: when you tell your friends who hated That Awkward Moment that you enjoyed That Awkward Moment.
Look, let’s get some things out of the way. This film certainly isn’t great. It’s got a lot of problems but thanks to the cast, you might be able to overlook it. I did.
The film, written and directed by Tom Gormican, stars Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan as three best friends who pledge not to get girlfriends after Jordan’s Mikey finds out his wife has been shagging another guy.
And you know having the guys stay single ain’t going to last long.
The script and characters are about as thin as the paper it was written on. Efron’s Jason, who drinks his morning coffee out of a cereal bowl, was just dumped by a girl he didn’t even know he was dating. He’s a textbook metrosexual and is the one that has ‘commitment issues’. Teller’s Daniel is the guy’s guy. He makes it known whenever he’s taking a dump and looks like he’s just crawled out of bed (yet, he still manages to hook up with incredibly hot women). Both Jason and Daniel are somehow hotshot book designers and live in way too expensive apartments in Manhattan. Jordan’s character is the most mature of the bunch. He’s a Doctor who’s been, up till now, married forever.
At points, it felt like scenes were missing. All of a sudden we’d be in a different place or time with no explanation. And it’s clear that the guys were improving because scenes went on way too long and had zero to do with anything happening in the story. And to try and ground things in reality, there’s a bit of tragedy that seems out of place.
But with all that mess, the film does end up being fun. And that’s purely because of the cast. Teller, Efron and Jordan are having a blast working together and it definitely shows on-screen. Efron seems to have regressed a bit acting-wise from his past couple of movies (where he was really damn good) but he does have some hilarious moments and Teller is his usual cocky/smart self that just works so well. Jordan doesn’t really do anything humorous here but he fits in well with the guys.
But, what’s the absolute best thing about this movie? The girls. Imogen Poots (as Efron’s soon-to-be-girlfriend) and Mackenzie Davis (as Teller’s wing-woman) were just perfect. Poots has been really good in everything I’ve seen her in and it continues here. I’ve never seen Davis in anything (she’s relatively new having appeared in only a handful of things) but damn, I’ll bet you she’s going to be everywhere soon. Keep an eye out on her!
