Just Friends

The unthinkable happened while I was watching this movie, and it occurred within the first five minutes and lasted throughout the entire duration of the film. Ryan Reynolds and freaking Chris Klein made me laugh--and not just a vaguely amused chuckle either--I'm talking use-my-inhaler-because-I'm-laughing-so-hard funny. Seriously! The two most unlikely actors, paired together no less, made me laugh so much and so often, that I have half a mind to see this stupid movie again before it leaves the theaters. I would even pay the full $10 to see it again instead of sneaking in for a double-dip.

Ryan Reynolds plays Chris Brander, an overweight nice guy who is in love with his best friend, Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart). Reynolds hams it up while wearing the fat suit, singing along to All 4 One's "I Swear," wearing a retainer, and sporting a nifty 'fro, but he finally works up the courage to tell Jamie how he really feels about her. When Jamie tells him that she loves him more as a brother than a boyfriend, his mean-spirited classmates mercilessly laugh at him, and he storms off on his bike, not to return for 10 years. With a vastly improved physical figure, a high-paying job in the music industry, and a newfound prowess with the ladies, Chris is suddenly reunited with his high school past when he gets stranded on the way to Paris after the ridiculous antics of his superstar client, Samantha James (Anna Faris). Samantha being the new "it girl" in Hollywood, it is Chris's sad misfortune to have to kiss up to her at his boss's insistence. Happily for the audience, however, Chris's misfortune is our enjoyment, therefore rendering all of his scenes with the over-the-top and completely psychotic Samantha uproariously entertaining. While Chris has his younger brother distract Samantha (which was also highly amusing), he makes several failed attempts to romance Jamie, who seems immune to his new charms and only interested in the older, nerdier side of him that she remembers from high school. Competition for Jamie's affection comes in the form of Dusty Dinkelman (Chris Klein), formerly a pimply loser who was also in love with Jamie and is now a handsome Johnny-Do-Gooder. Of course, we all know Dusty's intentions can't be as honorable as they seem, and only Chris sees through Dusty's well-played "nice guy" act, which just happens to be more successful than his own.

The plot itself is obviously nothing all that astonishing, so what makes this movie so hilarious is that it doesn't play on the predictable jokes that I had fully anticipated. Ryan Reynolds actually made more than one facial expression and seemed to have more than one gimmick as well--in fact there was one scene in which he reminded me strongly of Jim Carrey. Chris's interactions with his brother, Mike, were consistently hysterical, and anytime Samantha was in a scene I knew with absolute certainty that I would be laughing throughout. The supporting characters, especially Chris's mom, were perfectly inserted into the story, such that they added subtle and completely unexpected comedy--usually in the form of deadpan one-liners. There was a lot of verbal comedy in addition to a respectable level of physical humor that wasn't overdone or annoying.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Ryan Reynolds was hilarious in this movie, as was Chris Klein and just about every other character in Just Friends. It was simply incredible. This is a silly movie, to be sure, but quite well made--probably for a young-ish audience--and I kind of want to give it the oscar rating.