bennington13 Review of What's Your Number?

What's Your Number? (2011)

What's your number? Probably higher than the score for this film

[3 October 2011]

I'll be honest. This was the least challenging movie showing at the cinema that didn't involve 3D sharks, hence its appeal. In a nutshell, Anna Faris vows not to sleep with anyone else unless he's 'The One' after learning (via the ever reliable medium of the woman's mag) that 96% of women with more than 20 ex-partners are unable to find husbands - I don't deny that it's cinematic candy floss. Unfortunately, even with expectations thus lowered, What's Your Number? still isn't premier league viewing. It's a shame really - Anna Faris and Chris Evans are a likable (and immensely buff) central couple, which makes them easy to root for/drool over. However, the film itself is merely a sequence of plot devices, some of which work, more of which don't. It's a terrible waste - few actresses have as much comic potential and willingness to make an ass of themselves as Faris. Even the open comedy goal of Faris re-visiting her exes is wasted - despite some promisingly perverse material, numerous cameos (including Martin Freeman, and a finger sniffing Joel McHale) are fluffed or wasted. The only positive is that the unmemorable male characters leave Blythe Danner clutching the best supporting actor role (as Faris' demonically elegant mother) by default. As for Evans, while he is effectively rehashing previous roles, most notably The Human Torch, as a cocky but lovable man ho', he (and his magnificent abs) are still worth the price of entry. Plus the basketball scene is probably the sexiest thing involving one ball that you'll see in a cineplex this year. Unfortunately, despite a plausible premise (rare is the woman that hasn't questioned everything about her existence after reading an article in a lifestyle magazine), the film sags. I wasn't expecting an exhaustive treatise on feminism, but What's Your Number? doesn't even acknowledge the irony of a woman 'taking control' of her life on the basis of a single spurious statistic in a Marie Claire article, or the flagrant double standard at play as Faris' character freaks out about her number - a number easily surpassed by her male neighbour. Such omissions push the film beyond light and fluffy, and into outright vacuous territory instead. Sub plots come and go without arousing much interest, the insurmountable obstacle and various declarations of love are extremely contrived (yes, even for a rom com), and then there's the perennial question of how two penniless people can afford such magnificent apartments (I rent a hovel at vast expense, so naturally it bothers me). In short, there were better rom coms released in 2011 and unless you've already seen them, you should probably save this one for a rainy Sunday evening.