DVD Review: I Give It A Year

"Is it possible that some people just aren't supposed to be married" 

Joseph Millson having a threesome and Jane Asher swearing are the main high points in Dan Mazer’s I Give It A Year, a film that could do with a whole lot more. The sheen on Nat and Josh’s whirlwind marriage has worn off a little, leaving them facing serious questions as they approach their one year anniversary. With former loves reappearing, new current attractions popping up and friends and family placing bets on whether they’ll make it to the landmark 12 months, the odds seem unlikely.

Which adds up to the film’s major problem, a distinct lack of any real dramatic imperative in hoping that Nat and Josh stay together. Rose Byrne does her best with a thanklessly constructed part who seems solely designed to frustrate Rafe Spall’s hangdog novelistic intentions but as the film opens with a fast-forward through the heady days of early romance, we’re not left with anything to convince us that we should be rooting for them to actually make it to a year, hell, even the end of the film!

A few laughs are present in some of the comic set-ups and the unrestrained smuttiness and swearing, but it is disheartening to see the likes of Stephen Merchant and Olivia Colman being reduced to one-note bit-players, Minnie Driver’s scathing friend just about scrapes through though. But the focus keeps coming back to why the hell should we care and even as the cards fall the way they obviously would, there’s little sense of satisfaction. I give it 10 minutes before you stop watching. 

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,