I Give It A Year ☆☆

Hmmmmm. This one either needed work or to be watched under the influence. Am thinking now that a glass of wine or two would not have gone amiss.

I Give It A Year is a frankly depressing tale of a couple’s first year of marriage. They get married after only being together for seven months and, for some, that can be enough for the rest of their lives. Not so much for these two.

The ‘happy’ couple spend the next nine months in various states of love, unrest and wanting to kill each other for their quirks. She sings the wrong words to every song, he is so laid back he’s horizontal most of the time. They each have potential love interests in the form of Americans, unsure whether this was deliberate or just happened to come out of casting for the roles.

Essentially, they should never have gotten married.

Try as they might the cast, which is full of decent actors and comedic talent, can’t save this film.

The leads, Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne, have barely an ounce of chemistry between them. Their would-be-affair-havers-with have even less chemistry. Anna Faris needed to have words with whoever did her hair and make-up on this film as she lost her spark completely. Or perhaps it was the company she had that just sapped it from her. Simon Baker was just embarrassing. There is a scene with doves which, though Byrne is quite funny in her reactions, does nothing for Baker’s character or acting.

Actually none of the characters were especially pleasant. I didn’t root for anyone, not even Olivia Coleman’s frankly bizarre turn as a man-hating marriage counsellor. Stephen Merchant was on top form as a completely embarrassing, cringe-inducing, idiot best friend of Spall. Usually I can cope with him, but I think perhaps there was too much for my taste.

Had the characters been less vile I would have enjoyed it. Undoubtedly I laughed but most of it was accompanied by “what are these people doing?!” Even for a rom-com it was totally implausible, utterly ridiculous and with an ending that just wouldn’t happen. Ever.

Try it with a glass of wine, my mother found it funny so we suspect there may have been fermented grape juice involved. However she may simply have enjoyed the film so what I’d say is give it a go. Its not a complete waste of time and may start some interesting conversations about how much we put up with from our partners.