GOOD LUCK CHUCK
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
The often raunchy Good Luck Chuck is yet another entry in the recent glut of comedies (in the wake of a movement primarily jumpstarted by Wedding Crashers) that finally feel okay about flaunting their R ratings. While it obviously pales in comparison to the high-trash aesthetic of Judd Apatow's recent output, it nonetheless retains a few of its own nuggets of enjoyability.
Longtime film editor Mark Helfrich steps behind the camera as director on this movie, and while his work won't be winning any DGA awards, whattya want from a flick that shows a tubby guy humping a hollowed-out grapefruit? Josh Stolberg's script (from a short story by Steve Glenn) centers on the almost-handsome Dane Cook as lonesome dentist Charlie. Poor Charlie's love life has been plagued by failure ever since a childhood game of spin the bottle with an aggressive goth girl went way, way wrong.
His curse is that every girl he seals the deal with dumps him, only to immediately find her soulmate in the very next man she dates. As he attends the wedding of a once close friend (guess who dated Chuck before she found her groom?), he bumps into a terribly clumsy penguin enthusiast played by Jessica Alba. She represents the triumvirate of this film's absurdity, as we're asked to believe that a) Alba is a doofus who can't score a date, b) she's a penguin specialist, and c) someone on Earth has the name Cam Wexler.
However, she pulls it off to the best of her abilities, and plays it cute and silly throughout. Charlie's friend Stu (performed by Dan Fogler, much funnier here than in Balls of Fury) is the scene stealing breast enhancement plastic surgeon who covets his buddy's plight. While Charlie remains unconvinced of the reality of his 'curse', Stu sees it as an absolute truth and scolds the man for not embracing every piece of trim sent his way.
As soon as the word gets out about Charlie's particular situation, his waiting room is suddenly filled with buxom young beauties looking for a sweaty shortcut to marital bliss. This fuels one of the film's high points (if you can call it that), a rather funny montage of Chuck's infinite sexual encounters, each one occupying a tiny square of the screen's frame. It's like the Brady Bunch intro if that was filled with images of non-stop shagging in place of goofy character close-ups.
Lo and behold Chuck tires of the never-ending deluge of poontang, and continually finds himself fascinated by the dorky girl who routinely walks into streetlight poles. His obstacles are twofold – despite her stoner brother's (Lonny Ross) urgings, Cam doesn't want to date Charlie based on her own pile of emotional baggage. And on Charlie's end, he fears consummating their relationship will lead to an immediate breakup followed by her eternal happiness. Is it reality, or an excuse to live in eternal adolescence?
While Chuck's tender acquiescence to the sexual pleas of his kind yet overweight secretary plays off as fairly sweet, the subsequent carnal foray into the Fat Bastard-like Eleanor Skipple (Jodie Stewart) jettisons much of the goodwill generated by that earlier scene. Having sex with Eleanor is Stu's idea of the ultimate litmus test of the 'curse', for if she can find a mate there must be something supernatural behind it. Unfortunately for me, my girlfriend almost vomited on me during the following segment.
The film also loses its footing in the characterization of Charlie, who suddenly goes off-the-charts neurotic at one point and begins stalking Cam. He also comes up with the brilliant plan of hooking her up with a handsome penguin enthusiast-slash-writer whom Cam idolizes. It's all a bit of overloaded nonsense looking to generate as much conflict as possible during the second act.
Overall, it's not half bad. While Cook isn't terribly funny, it's Fogler's character that is meant to deliver most of the laughs anyhow (and he does violate fruit with a certain level of flair). Alba is perfectly capable, and goes a long way to make the audience believe in her as a dateless klutz. It's kind of like one of those weird Adam Sandler films that works despite the fact that it shouldn't (see 50 First Dates). It's got a filthy, filthy potty mouth and it's not even inherently quoteworthy, but I've spent much worse times in the dark than with Good Luck Chuck. And make sure to stick around during the end credits for the film's funniest moment, a prolonged bawdy encounter with an aquatic bird of the inanimate kind.