Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 88 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Lake Bell, Simon Pegg, Rory Kinnear, Sharon Morgan, Olivia Williams, Phoebe Waller-Bridger
Description: Single Nancy takes the place of a stranger’s blind date, which leads to finding her perfect boyfriend (Simon Pegg)
I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2020 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 4: A BRITISH COMEDY
Review: A whimsical twist of fate or coincidence is always a tasty entry to a romantic comedy. If at least one of the upcoming lovebirds is deliberately cheating on the whole thing, it's actually even better. The lie is revealed early on in the story, which creates a whole new dynamic between the characters. As far as plot is concerned, the British romcom “Man Up” is not that special, it’s the leads that level it up.
Director Ben Palmer, best known for his television work, was allowed to work on a screenplay by Tess Morris for his second feature film. With “Man Up”, Morris focusses primarily on the blossoming romance between Jack and Nancy. She portrays the female protagonist as a hard to match wallflower who would rather sit in her bathrobe in her hotel room watching “The Silence of the Lambs” while enjoying lots of candy than showing herself at a wedding party with far too happy thirty-somethings.
Once on the train, sighing about the lack of direction and love in her life, she meets the bitchy Jessica who reads a self-help book and especially advises Nancy to take it up herself. She leaves the book, which serves as recognition for her blind date, to Nancy. At London's Waterloo station, Nancy comes into contact with Jessica's date Jack and she decides to break through the rut of her life by playing along with the game while bluffing. It's easy to guess that the two of them feel a huge connection and have a great afternoon and evening ahead of them. With fear and trembling it is looking forward to the moment that Nancy's big secret will come out, just because it all went so well.
The two, played by Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, have great chemistry and they are the heart of the film. Pegg has been one of my favorite comedic actors for a while and he proofs why. But even in this film some jokes just don’t work. The entrance of character Sean, an old classmate of Nancy, add a little ridiculousness to the film. Jokes revolving around him are a bit tasteless at times and a bit silly. Here it feels more like an American comedy. But overall the humor is strong and subtle and the characters are relatable.
“Man Up” is a fun British comedy with charming leads.
Rating: 3,5/ 5
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