You Again
3/4
Starring: Kristen Bell, Odette Yustman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Jimmy Wolk, Victor Garber, Betty White
Rated PG for Brief Mild Language and Rude Behavior
I was not expecting to like this movie as much as I did. A PG-rated "black" comedy rarely works, since the genre is typically not family friendly. At most, I was hoping for a few passably amusing jokes and gags. But to my surprise, I laughed loud and frequently from beginning to end.
We all have our nemeses from high school. People that were cruel to us in school and made us miserable. As bad as it is, it happens to everyone. The characters in "You Again" are smart enough to know that. One character puts it, "No one gets through high school unscathed." And no matter how long life goes on, we carry our pasts with us.
Marni (Bell) is a successful PR executive working in Los Angeles. At the very beginning, she uses her experiences of being terrorized by the local bad girl, J.J. all throughout high school and overcoming them as a way of telling the new flock of workers that people can't control what happens, but we can change how they are perceived. On her way home for her brother's wedding to a girl named Joanna (Yustman), she learns the horrible truth: Joanna is the same girl who made her life a nightmare in high school. The "new" Joanna is a saintly goody-two shoes, but Marni doesn't believe it. She thinks it's just an act, and wants revenge. Her mother, Gail (Curtis), understands how she feels, but tries to tell her to put it behind her. That is until Joanna's Aunt Ramona (Weaver) shows up, and Gail remembers how horrible it was when her best friend turned on her.
There's nothing in this movie that's particularly surprising. It's not that kind of a movie. And, quite frankly, many of the gags aren't particularly clever either. What saves the movie are the good performances. From top to bottom, the actors to solid jobs of breathing life into their characters. Kristen Bell is good as Marni; she's human enough to get us to rally behind her, and she has the gift of comic timing. Odette Yustman (now going by the surname Annable after marrying "Brothers & Sisters" star Dave Annable) lets out her inner bitch as Joanna, and she's got a great smirk that makes her easy to hate. Jamie Lee Curtis is in far too few movies these days, so it's always nice to see her again. Curtis is a great actress, and Gail, while not the best or most developed character she's ever played, is tailor-made to her strengths. Sigourney Weaver is also very good as the rich queen Ramona, who's sudden nice-ness belies her past. Curtis and Weaver are both gifted actresses, and this is the first time they've been together in a movie. They work well together, and the film's funniest scene (it takes place in a pool) is all because of them. And then of course there's Betty White, who is hilarious as always.
The problem with the film is that it seems to want to be both edgy and family friendly, and it veers from one side of the line to the other like a winding country road. Every time it goes for a funny scene, it retreats back into feel-good drama (which, by the way, works) as if director Andy Fickman feels guilty for getting a little nasty. Then there's the case of Joanna's stalker-ish ex-boyfriend, Tim (Kyle Bornheimer), who is a little creepy. He belongs in a darker, more mature, version of this story (I would love to see an R-rated, no holds barred version of this same premise). I will admit that the filmmakers do some very funny things with him.
I liked "You Again." It's funny, the characters are well-drawn and well-acted. It's not ambitious, but it does what it sets out to do. Enough said.
Starring: Kristen Bell, Odette Yustman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Jimmy Wolk, Victor Garber, Betty White
Rated PG for Brief Mild Language and Rude Behavior
I was not expecting to like this movie as much as I did. A PG-rated "black" comedy rarely works, since the genre is typically not family friendly. At most, I was hoping for a few passably amusing jokes and gags. But to my surprise, I laughed loud and frequently from beginning to end.
We all have our nemeses from high school. People that were cruel to us in school and made us miserable. As bad as it is, it happens to everyone. The characters in "You Again" are smart enough to know that. One character puts it, "No one gets through high school unscathed." And no matter how long life goes on, we carry our pasts with us.
Marni (Bell) is a successful PR executive working in Los Angeles. At the very beginning, she uses her experiences of being terrorized by the local bad girl, J.J. all throughout high school and overcoming them as a way of telling the new flock of workers that people can't control what happens, but we can change how they are perceived. On her way home for her brother's wedding to a girl named Joanna (Yustman), she learns the horrible truth: Joanna is the same girl who made her life a nightmare in high school. The "new" Joanna is a saintly goody-two shoes, but Marni doesn't believe it. She thinks it's just an act, and wants revenge. Her mother, Gail (Curtis), understands how she feels, but tries to tell her to put it behind her. That is until Joanna's Aunt Ramona (Weaver) shows up, and Gail remembers how horrible it was when her best friend turned on her.
There's nothing in this movie that's particularly surprising. It's not that kind of a movie. And, quite frankly, many of the gags aren't particularly clever either. What saves the movie are the good performances. From top to bottom, the actors to solid jobs of breathing life into their characters. Kristen Bell is good as Marni; she's human enough to get us to rally behind her, and she has the gift of comic timing. Odette Yustman (now going by the surname Annable after marrying "Brothers & Sisters" star Dave Annable) lets out her inner bitch as Joanna, and she's got a great smirk that makes her easy to hate. Jamie Lee Curtis is in far too few movies these days, so it's always nice to see her again. Curtis is a great actress, and Gail, while not the best or most developed character she's ever played, is tailor-made to her strengths. Sigourney Weaver is also very good as the rich queen Ramona, who's sudden nice-ness belies her past. Curtis and Weaver are both gifted actresses, and this is the first time they've been together in a movie. They work well together, and the film's funniest scene (it takes place in a pool) is all because of them. And then of course there's Betty White, who is hilarious as always.
The problem with the film is that it seems to want to be both edgy and family friendly, and it veers from one side of the line to the other like a winding country road. Every time it goes for a funny scene, it retreats back into feel-good drama (which, by the way, works) as if director Andy Fickman feels guilty for getting a little nasty. Then there's the case of Joanna's stalker-ish ex-boyfriend, Tim (Kyle Bornheimer), who is a little creepy. He belongs in a darker, more mature, version of this story (I would love to see an R-rated, no holds barred version of this same premise). I will admit that the filmmakers do some very funny things with him.
I liked "You Again." It's funny, the characters are well-drawn and well-acted. It's not ambitious, but it does what it sets out to do. Enough said.
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