Wanderlust is the kind of comedy that probably won't accumulate an audience as large as it deserves. With the kind of tone that skews towards the edginess of a low-budget indie and a release date that has been delayed for months, the mood just doesn't feel right for a film like this to be overwhelmingly successful in a marketplace currently thriving on broody romance and gory action. If my prediction holds true, it will be truly unfortunate, for Wanderlust is an absolute blast, hilarious from start to finish.
The film plays like the now-traditional "raunchy comedy with heart" patented by Judd Apatow and Co. (Apatow does serve as a producer on the film), but with a snarky edge that isn't afraid to veer into the bizarre and uncomfortable. That boldness is likely the result of the film's writers, David Wain and Ken Marino, both veterans of the comedy troupe The State. The duo's most famous film may always be the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, a film whose willful zaniness and anarchic spirit was clearly an inspiration for this new film. But what sets Wanderlust apart -- what, dare I say, makes it better -- is how it ties its screwball comedy to tangible elements of reality and focuses its satire on more specific targets. While Wet Hot was like a look inside a world of goofballs, Wanderlust is about identifiably restless characters trying to navigate through a world of goofballs.
Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play the identifiably restless couple at the film's center, and on the evidence of the film, I doubt any two actors could have more fun than these two had making this movie. There is enough character-level material to give them tangible roles to "act," but there is also a clear trust in the film's gut-busting comic set pieces that allows them to let go and just "perform." For Rudd, this kind of inspired zaniness is becoming increasingly commonplace in everything he does. For Aniston, it continues an inspired run of fearlessness that was sparked last summer in Horrible Bosses. They let themselves go to the absolute depths of ridiculousness knowing that audience laughter will act as their safety net.Rudd and Aniston are George and Linda, a couple whose relationship has reached the turning point to end all turning points. After purchasing a ridiculously expensive and predictably tiny "mini-loft" in Manhattan, George loses his job and Linda's latest "project," a documentary about penguins with testicular cancer, has just been rejected by HBO (the executives tell her that if she could work in material about crack and hookers, the film would be more appealing). Having lost their new home and with no job prospects in a shaky economy, George and Linda are forced to choose a new path. On that path, they stumble across Elysium, which purports to be a Bed and Breakfast but is actually an "intentional community," a free-loving, pot-smoking, nudist-embracing, Hippie-meets-New-Age commune. Of course, Elysium is the stage for an endless string of comic set pieces featuring a large cast of fearless comic actors (among them Kathryn Hahn, Justin Theroux, and former State cast members Kerri Kenney-Silver and Joe Lo Truglio). But it also underlines George and Linda's innate differences; he yearns for security and stability, while she is constantly in search of new passions.
This conflict plays out in somewhat unsavory ways; the screenplay isn't afraid to take rather uncomfortable turns that up-end expectations. Unfortunately, this arc plays out amid a serious boondoggle of lame plot mechanics involving corporate fat cats who want to build a casino on Elysium's grounds and members of the community who may not be as genuine as they appear. Plot, in a film like this, is thin and predictable at best. It helps that writers Marino and Wain (who also directed) understand they are all about satire and slapstick, glossing over the specifics of storytelling as if it was a distraction from their main goal -- making us laugh.
And I did laugh -- again and again, sometimes without ceasing, oftentimes uproariously. Wanderlust is pure comedy, populated with one inspired comic performance after another.
