Going the Distance [Blu-Ray]

Beyond a central premise of existentially confused lovers, Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long), maintaining a relationship from different sides of America, there are a lot of conflicting assertions and weird cultural observations floating around in Going the Distance. To start, Garrett works for a record label; he's mostly disillusioned about the enterprise, realizing that it's more about pre-packaged, synthetic boy bands and gimmicks than actual indie music discovery and promotion. Roughly 30 and living in an apartment with buddies Dan (Charlie Day) and Box (Jason Sudeikis), he routinely goes to the pub and revels in boyhood humour about toilets and cougar hunting, much like your average undergraduate. Meanwhile, Erin complains of being a 31-year-old intern at a struggling NYC newspaper, screwed out of actual employment because of a blissfully illiterate general public content to read grammatically incoherent and ill-informed internet ramblings. Both storylines slam a superficial, internet-saturated culture, yet ironically remain connected through online videoconferences, where the two lovers joke about Top Gun and burst into laughter during virtual fuck sessions. Something else unique to this potty-mouthed rom-com is its portrayal of gender performance. Now, it's not going the overt route of female empowerment through career success and unflattering, shoulder-padded power suits, rather, it portrays Erin as the laidback, "go with the flow" type, while Garrett worries about his diet and subjects himself to spray tans. So, on top of the observations about the internet, print news, career failure and music industry malaise, there's a play on battle of the sexes role identification. Furthermore, the actual long distance romance portrayed in the film plays second fiddle to the many random, extended gags about Charlie Day pooping with the door open and Christina Applegate dry humping her husband on the dining room table. None of it ever really gels or makes a great deal of sense, but if you turn your brain off there are a few good laughs to be had ― mostly at the expense of Michael Bay and Tom Cruise. The Blu-Ray includes a series of cutesy supplements about dating long distance and creating the perfect date atmosphere, which is essentially an opportunity for cast members to crack jokes about farting on a first date or mistaking intercourse for finger banging, and so on. There is also a music video from Boxer Rebellion and a commentary track from director Nanette Burstein, whose moustache looks quite dapper in HD.