Surprise, surprise, surprise. The romantic comedy "Going the Distance" turned out to have both required elements: romance and comedy. Erin (Drew Barrymore) is an intern at a New York newspaper (an intern in her 30s? Really?) who is having no luck getting the paper to give her a job as a reporter. (No jobs in the newspaper business? Okay, this part makes sense.) She decides to move back to San Francisco to finish her degree. Garrett (Justin Long) works for a record company (he has to promote a boy band instead of the indie rock acts he loves? Really? Okay, this is actually believable too). Erin and Garrett meet at a pub, have a fun night that goes into the next morning, and decide to keep seeing each other but keep it casual because Erin's leaving for California in six weeks. Those six weeks, however, are magical, and they find themselves in a long-distance relationship -- lots of phone calls, texts, etc. and the occasional cross-country flight. I have no idea if Barrymore and Long are still together in real life, but they make a nice film couple. The obstacles they face are mostly realistic, and the humor is sometimes raunchy (it earns its R rating) but kept me laughing quite a bit. In supporting roles great work is done by Christina Applegate and Jim Gaffigan as Erin's sister and brother-in-law, and Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as Garrett's friends. This movie didn't do well at the box office but deserves a better fate.
My grade: B-plus.
