A summer comedy about friends running a homegrown phone sex line out of their New York apartment seems like a slam dunk. Juxtapose some bawdy humor with a sincerely sweet resolution and you have a light-yet-satisfying trip to the movie theater.
Jamie Travis’ “For A Good Time, Call …” doesn’t quite get there.
The film has moments that have you falling out of your seat with laughter, but because of uneven writing and performances, they are few and far between.
The film plays heavily on an odd-couple dynamic. Free-spirited Katie (Ari Graynor, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” “Mystic River”) is unable to pay the bills on her deceased grandmother’s apartment, which is no longer rent-controlled. In order to make ends meet, she reluctantly takes in type-A Lauren (Lauren Miller, “Superbad”) to rent gran’s old room. After Lauren suffers a layoff at work, she predictably lends her business sense to Katie’s wild side, and an immediately successful phone sex line is born (how a phone sex line is profitable in the age of digital pornography is beyond comprehension).
It’s not exactly Oscar bait, but Miller could still have given more to her character. Sure, Lauren is purposely bland and struggling to let loose, but Miller takes it too far. Her transformation from an aspiring editor at a publishing house and good girl to phone-sex maven is less entertaining than it should be. Conversely, Graynor shines in her role, starting out with cynicism and sass that convincingly gives way to a sensitive side as the film wears on.
Justin Long plays Jesse, the gay best friend that makes the unlikely pair realize they are the solution to each other’s problems whether they like it or not. His flamboyant performance is more predictable caricature than real character, but he does manage to get some good laughs throughout the film.
For all of the easy comedy to be coaxed out of the hijinks of running a phone sex line, the script falls flat in the few places it actually needs to work to deliver. A blow-up between Katie and Lauren over Lauren’s potential new job, supposedly the emotional climax of the film, suffers from both weak writing and editing. The conflict feels more like bad theater than two friends desperately trying to work things out (and failing).
The filmmakers did seize one golden opportunity: High-profile actors make cameos as customers to the phone sex line. No less than Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen end up stealing the show with their hilariously odd and unseemly requests, providing most of the real belly laughs that “For A Good Time, Call …” has to offer.
There are some dramatic bright spots. Actor Mark Webber has a strong turn as Sean, a repeat customer whose relationship with Katie turns from smut to something more tender and real. Moments between these two actors are by far the most believable, giving Graynor’s complicated Katie an emotional point to pivot on.
Ideally, “For A Good Time, Call …” would have turned out a bit more like its lead character Katie ““ irreverent, sassy, yet with something a little bit extra just beneath the surface. Instead it’s only an occasionally funny film whose sincere high point is Rogen struggling to pleasure himself in a bathroom stall. Take a pass on this one in the theaters, and save it for a sick-day Netflix marathon sometime next year.
““ Phillip Horlings
Email Horlings at phorlings@media.ucla.edu .