Pegged in advertisements as the funniest movie since “Bridesmaids” the newest romantic comedy, “What’s Your Number?” falls short in comparison to the hilarious summer blockbuster.
Directed by Mark Mylod (Entourage) and starring Anna Farris (The House Bunny) and Chris Evans (Captain America), the film struggles to get past a predictable and lackluster plot that promotes double-standards.The movie starts with late twenty-something single and newly jobless girl, Ally Darling (Farris), reading an article in Marie Claire only to discover that she has slept with more men than twice the national average- putting her at 20.
Convinced by a study that women with a high number of sex partners are less likely to get married, Ally is devoted to keep her number from going up and insists she won’t sleep with another guy until she knows he’s “the one.”
The pressure to find the perfect man is on, as Ally’s younger sister Daisy (Ari Graynor) is about to get married. In addition, Ally struggles to meet the expectations of her mother, Ava (Blythe Danner) to follow in her sister’s footsteps.
So, with the help of her womanizing, yet adorable next door neighbor, Colin (Evans) she embarks on a quest to track down all of her old exes, in order to see which ones have gotten better with age and are now “husband material.”
Unfortunately Ally must go through the 19 losers from her past in order to come to the conclusion that Colin is the man for her.
The main problem with the film is it encourages the double standard that women who have slept with more than 20 guys are sluts doomed to be spinsters, whereas men with countless one night stands are acceptable marriage material.
The script written by Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden, is based off a novel by Karyn Bosnak and fails to bring in anything fresh to the romantic comedy genre. Fortunately the film is somewhat saved by the undeniable chemistry between its two main stars: Farris and Evans.
While Farris continues playing another ditzy blonde character, in yet another movie her performance is memorable, as she is able to garner many laugh out loud moments from the audience. Perhaps the funniest scene is when she reunites with one her exes, and her British accent turns from “Eliza Doolittle” to “Borat.”
Ultimately, the movie is a decent chick flick that will leave most viewers with a smile on their face, as long as they have somewhat low expectations. While there is no surprise twist ending, the film may cheer up those hopeful, but unlucky romantics out there and will at least get a few laughs. My suggestion is you save ten dollars and wait for the DVD release.
“Whats Your Number?” rated R, 106 minutes
