MAN UP ★★★★★ RUBEN GUTHRIE ★★★★★

Man Up

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Out july 23 / RAtED M / 88 Mins.

Director Ben Palmer cast Simon Pegg, Lake Bell, Rory Kinnear, Olivia Williams

plot Jack (Pegg) mistakes NaNcy (Bell) for his BliNd date. NaNcy Plays aloNg — uNtil the truth emerges aNd Jack fliPs out.

Lake Bell and Simon Pegg in a meet-cute that turns out to be a meet-fake.

Thoroughly BriTish romcom

Man Up is built from all the right genre-appropriate parts: a quirky but believable set-up; two aggressively charming leads; actual jokes; an ’80s-themed dance-off; a punch-the-air run for love; and a cuddly family so loveable you want to adopt them wholesale. As you’d expect from the talent behind voice-over comedy In A World..., Lake Bell nails a pitch-perfect Brit accent as unlucky-in-love Nancy, while Simon Pegg brings his best geek-cuteness for recently scorned Jack.

The accidental blind date premise is fun, and what’s refreshing is Jack and Nancy’s date feels like a real date.

Sadly, the recognisable comedic tenor wobbles during their night-long shenanigans. Creepy schooldays stalker Sean (Kinnear) jars, feeling like he’s stumbled on set from the broader comedy next door, as he plays both the boorish bad guy and prattish clown.

Jack the romantic and Nancy the cynic, meanwhile, are true to their characters, except when they aren’t. The latter is Bridget Jonesy in her never-geta-man list-making, but when the plot requires, she transforms into a dance floor rug-cutter or sultry sexpot.

Before Jack learns Nancy’s a faker, there’s giddy fun in seeing two charismatic comedians having a ball, getting drunk and messing about. It’s a shame, then, that after things go fully pear-shaped, Nancy’s character turns into a defeated blubberer, thumping her head against the wall and only occasionally capable of speech.

Forgive it a few flaws and Ben Palmer’s follow-up to The Inbetweeners Movie is still extremely endearing, getting the very best from its talented leads and boasting a bowling montage that’ll make you hit the lanes. Pronto. Tess Morris’s promising script also benefits from an excellent supporting cast, but the tonally uneven finished product is less than the sum of its impressive parts. ali PlumB

ruben Guthrie

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Out july 16 / RAtED tBc / 94 Minutes

Director/ screenWriter Brendan Cowell cast Patrick Brammall, Abbey Lee, Robyn Nevin, Jack thompson, Alex Dimitriades

plot WheN a BeNder laNds ruBeN guthrie (Brammall) a BrokeN arm aNd a BrokeN eNgagemeNt, the hedoNistic “ad maN” is forced to evaluate his relatioNshiP With Booze. But stayiNg soBer is Not easy WheN your World revolves arouNd the Bottle.

corporaTe “rock sTar”

Ruben’s life is as boozy as the carpet of a dive bar and, yes, sticky situations abound. Like the time he went out to drink with clients and woke up a week later. Or the time he jumped off the roof of his Sydney mansion into the pool, “I am a golden god” style, only to break his arm and sink to the bottom. His Czech fiancee Zoya (Lee) has had it, and tells him she’s moving back to Prague and to come find her when he’s been sober for a year. Pretty soon he’s Ruben Guthrie and he’s an alcoholic (“Hi Ruben!”) attending meetings. But staying off the sauce proves tricky as it’s leaked into every area of his life, and his friends, family and colleagues all enjoy a glass or 10.

Writer-director Brendan Cowell’s play-turned-movie puts Australia’s drinking culture under the microscope in a way that’s part exposé and part redemption story and part advertisement for Lexus and Sydney. Yep, Ruben works for real-life ad agency George Patterson Y&R Sydney and, as such, there are brands plastered all over the big screen; even the opening credits sequence places ™ after each actor’s name.

But in a film where the protagonist’s job consists of selling himself as much as

VerDict If it could decide whether it was a cute romcom or a dirty one, Man Up would be a real gem. As charming as it is, it falls between two stools and never manages to, ahem, Man Up.

Cast took a break as his cast proved hard to break. Ba-dum-ching.

look closer

1

Australians lost $25.3 million to online dating scams in 2013.

2

Australia is dating app Tinder’s third biggest market, after the US and the UK.

3

Online dating site RSVP.com.au has around 2 million Australian users; eHarmony.com.au has over a million.