|
What's Your Number?
| Released |
30 September 2011 |
| Director |
Mark Mylod |
Starring
|
Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley Jr, Oliver Jackson-Cohen |
Writer(s)
|
Gabrielle Allan, Jennifer Crittenden |
| Producer(s) |
Beau Flynn, Tripp Vinson |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
106 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Rating |
15A |
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Women’s Lib(ido).
There is a sad lack of imagination infecting films aimed at women. Writers have seemingly given up on original ideas, instead opting to raid the pages of glossy magazines and their interminable quizzes and Agony Aunt psycho-babble. The resultant female characters fall either side of a divide between nauseatingly smug lifestyle gurus and frantic neurotics following ludicrous lists of rules while attempting to reach an unattainable level of womanly perfection.
The female psychotic of What’s Your Number? is Ally, played by Anna Faris. She is a woman so easily influenced that her life falls apart thanks to a finger wagging Marie Claire article about how women who have had more than the average number of sexual partners are less likely to find a good man. Ally is well over this average and according to the magazine this is a no-no; what potential husband would go near such a strumpet? Unwilling to raise her number, Ally goes back through her ex-partners in the hope that one of them was actually her Mr. Right. To track down her lovers she enlists the help of her philandering neighbour Chris Evans (who spends half his screen time in states of undress). The rest is rom-com by numbers.
Given the subject matter, What’s Your Number? initially seems to be pitching itself as raunchy but is actually very conservative, both in its ideas and execution - surprising given that the director, Mark Mylod cut his teeth in a host of edgy TV comedy from Reeves and Mortimer to Ali G. Aside from a few awkward conversations about the characters sex lives and some curse words thrown in for no reason, it’s all quite reserved. And not at all funny.
Furthermore, rather than countering the outdated notion that a woman should remain as pure as possible for her future husband, the film wholeheartedly subscribes to it. Ally’s friends are a saintly bunch who, like swans, mate for life. For not settling down, Ally is made to look ridiculous, a silly party girl with hideous taste in men. Faris does silly quite well of course, but the script lets her down as does her charmless co-star. The sooner Evans gets back in the Captain America suit the better.
Watching What’s Your Number? only served as a reminder that despite the success of Bridesmaids this summer, films aimed at women will forever return to this kind of banality.
-
Linda O’Brien |
