LONG SHOT MOVIE REVIEW

Long Shot Review: She’s the U.S. Secretary of State – ambitious, intelligent, and talented. Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is the perfect combination of beauty with brains. She aims to run for President of the United States and she wants to get there by actually making a difference. He’s a pot-loving, rule-breaking journalist who believes in defying big corporations, and the government. When Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) learns that the newspaper he works for is bought by a media mogul he despises, his obvious choice is to quit. Fred and Charlotte meet at a party and realise they know each other from childhood. Despite having little in common, Charlotte instinctively decides to hire Fred as her new speech writer. During their time together, they discover their feelings for each other to the dismay of Charlotte’s staff because of how it impacts her ambitions.

The notion of Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron as an odd couple is as unusual as it gets, and yet, it works. Charlize Theron has proven time and again that she’s capable of taking on practically any genre. She shuffles from a calm and collected woman-in-charge to a zany, carefree party girl (at least in one scene) with ease. But this oddball romantic comedy is Seth Rogen’s forte. He knows exactly how to ramp his socially awkward, unfiltered, inappropriate loudmouth gimmick up a notch, and then bring it down to sensitive man-child levels. What’s most compelling is how both actors work with each other’s strengths resulting in an effective comedic pairing.

They are helped by a stellar support cast with the likes of Andy Serkis, Alexander Skarsgård, and Bob Odenkirk in small but essential roles. However, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ravi Patel and June Diane Raphael play great supporting characters that serve to enhance Charlotte and Fred’s chemistry, regardless of how unlikely that might initially appear. This is what carries most of the film through some murky waters, and even a climax that is a bit hard on the rom-com nose. Under Jonathan Levine’s direction, the film also takes the opportunity to address the gender-biased scrutiny and criticism faced by women in power, and why they need to work harder than their male counterparts to be merely ‘likeable’. Beyond satire that’s anything but politically correct, ‘Long Shot’ is a definite crowd-pleaser with its heart in the right place.

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